TURKEY
Economy signals slowdown
After posting one of the best growth performances among peers in the second quarter of this year, the country’s economy is showing signs of a slowdown that some investors have said would morph into a technical recession later in the year. Gross domestic output rose 5.2 percent during the three months through June from a year earlier, in line with the median estimate of 5.3 percent in a Bloomberg survey. While that keeps the country’s place among the world’s fastest-growing nations, a deeper dive into the data shows consumers and investors starting to hit the brakes, and government spending and exporters preventing a more rapid slowdown. Private consumption, which is estimated to make up nearly two-thirds of the economy, grew 6.3 percent on an annual basis, slowing from a revised 9.3 percent in the first quarter.
CHINA
Producer inflation drops
The country’s producer inflation last month cooled amid softening domestic demand, pointing to a steady slowing in growth in the world’s second-biggest economy as it confronts heightened risks to the outlook from a heated trade war with the US. Consumer inflation, on the other hand, picked up more than expected, although policymakers are likely to stay focused on growth rather than pricing pressures as US President Donald Trump raises the stakes in the tariff war. The producer price index, a gauge of industrial profitability, rose 4.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 4.6 percent increase in July, National Statistics Bureau data showed yesterday. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the index to rise to 4 percent last month. On a monthly basis, the index picked up from 0.1 percent in July to 0.4 percent last month.
AUTOMOTIVE
‘Dieselgate’ trial begins
The first major German court case against Volkswagen AG over the “dieselgate” scandal that has shaken up the auto industry got under way yesterday, as investors pursue the world’s largest automaker for billions in compensation. A regional court in Brunswick began examining whether the auto giant should have informed investors sooner about so-called “defeat devices” it built into 11 million cars worldwide to fool regulatory emissions tests. The case is supposed to clear up 193 questions common to about 3,650 claims totalling about 9 billion euros ($10.5 billion). At issue is a 40 percent plunge in company stock over two days in September 2015, which wiped billions off its market value.
SINGAPORE
Court orders partial refund
A court ordered the return to Malaysia of about S$15.3 million (US$11.1 million), just a small portion of total seized in the city-state as part of a probe into transactions linked to scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), lawyers for the fund and the Malaysian government said yesterday. The city-state is among at least six countries investigating claims that about US$4.5 billion was siphoned off from 1MDB, a fund founded by former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. In 2016, authorities said they had seized S$240 million in cash and properties as a result of investigations into 1MDB-related fund flows through the city-state. In May, the city-state and Malaysia agreed to cooperate on returning the funds to the Malaysian government, and the court order cleared the way for the first repatriation of funds. The funds are to be transferred to a special 1MDB recovery account in Kuala Lumpur.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”