GERMANY
Industrial production sags
Industrial production in Germany fell back in December, official data showed yesterday, in the latest of a series of signs pointing to slowdown in Europe’s largest economy. Output fell 0.4 percent month-on-month, federal statistics authority Destatis said in figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects — well short of a 0.9 percent rebound forecast by analysts. Looking to different areas of manufacturing, only capital goods makers increased production, with a boost of 0.9 percent.
SWITZERLAND
Rate hike this year unlikely
The Swiss National Bank is not likely to move interest rates off their current record low until next year as a result of the deteriorating economic environment in Europe, UBS Group AG said. Switzerland’s central bank is forecast to raise its deposit rate of minus 0.75 percent only in March 2020, according to the lender, whose previous forecast had been for a first increase late this year. Policy rates will not return to positive territory before 2021, it also said.
TRAVEL
Thomas Cook may sell airline
Thomas Cook Group PLC said yesterday it was willing to sell its airline business to raise cash and help it recover from a rough last year and weaker demand this year. The world’s oldest travel company said it was launching a strategic review as it needed more resources and financial flexibility after two profit warnings in quick succession late last year. “We are at an early stage in this review process which will consider all options to enhance value to shareholders and intensify our strategic focus,” chief executive Peter Fankhauser said.
AVIATION
Norwegian cuts forecast
Norwegian Air has cut its expected capacity growth for this year to just 9 percent from 15-20 percent seen previously as it seeks to preserve cash and prioritize profits over growth, it said yesterday while reporting a fourth-quarter loss. Europe’s third-largest budget carrier by passenger numbers, which on Wednesday postponed 16 aircraft deliveries from Boeing and Airbus, raised its capacity by 37 percent last year from 2017. The carrier’s fourth-quarter result plunged to a loss of 3 billion kroner (US$351 million) from a deficit of 713 million kroner a year ago.
AVIATION
Qantas cancels new A380s
Australian flag carrier Qantas Airways Ltd yesterday confirmed it would not take up eight Airbus A380s already ordered — the latest blow for the European airspace firm. In a statement, Sydney-based Qantas said it would focus instead on refurbishing its existing 12 Airbus super-jumbo planes. The carrier is expected to take delivery of six of Boeing’s rival Dreamliners sometime this year, and will continue to run A380s already in the fleet.
E-COMMERCE
Pinduoduo seeks US$1.5bn
China’s upstart e-commerce company Pinduoduo Inc (拼多多) and its shareholders filed to sell more than 50 million shares in a secondary offering that could raise about US$1.5 billion after the company’s public debut last year. The Shanghai-based company plans to sell 37 million American depository shares, while investors market 14.8 million, according to a securities filing. The lockup period for Pinduoduo’s shares expired last month and the selling shareholders include Banyan Partners, Sun Vantage Investment and Lightspeed China Partners (光速中國).
BANKING
NAB bosses quit in scandal
National Australia Bank (NAB) yesterday said its chief executive and chairman would resign after blistering criticism from the head of a major inquiry into financial-sector misconduct. Chief executive Andrew Thorburn and chairman Ken Henry are the first heads of one of Australia’s “Big Four” banks to lose their jobs in the fallout from the royal commission inquiry, which exposed widespread wrongdoing in the industry last year. The commission’s final report on Monday named the two as standing out from their peers by appearing unable to learn from their mistakes.
BRAZIL
Central bank plays it safe
Brazil’s central bank on Wednesday kept its key rate steady at a historically low 6.5 percent, showing caution as President Jair Bolsonaro’s government readied structural reforms meant to boost the economy. The decision adopted unanimously by the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee aligned with forecasts by most analysts. In a statement, the committee said that it has seen a “reduction of inflationary risks” since its last meeting in December.
UNITED STATES
US in a good place: Powell
US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell gave a brief but positive assessment of the economy at an event organized for educators. “The US economy is now in a good place,” Powell said on Wednesday evening in response to audience questions during a meeting with teachers at the central bank’s headquarters in Washington. “At the moment, unemployment is low, prices are near 2 percent inflation, so we’re in a good place now.”
AVIATION
EU airports growth slows
Growth in passenger numbers at European airports slowed last year and freight traffic decelerated sharply, airport association ACI Europe said on Wednesday, adding that uncertainty over the global economy and Brexit could hinder numbers this year too. Passenger growth in Europe slowed to 6.1 percent last year from 8.5 percent in 2017, which had been the quickest growth since 2004. Freight traffic declined much more sharply, from 8.4 percent growth in 2017 to 1.8 percent last year, with drops in traffic in November and December.
AUTOMAKERS
General Motors rebounds
General Motors Co posted an US$8.1 billion net profit for last year, fueled by better prices for vehicles sold in the US, a strong rebound from the previous year, when the company lost US$3.9 billion on a giant tax accounting charge. The company said on Wednesday that it made US$5.58 per share for the year. Without US$2.5 billion worth of special items largely due to restructuring, the profit was US$6.54, easily beating Wall Street expectations of US$6.29, according to a survey by FactSet. Full-year revenue rose 1 percent to US$147.05 billion, also beating estimates of just over US$145 billion.
BEVERAGES
Heat, soccer buoy Carlsberg
Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S says its full-year net profit soared to 5.31 billion kroner (US$811 million) last year, up from 1.26 billion kroner a year earlier, on strong beer sales across its major markets, boosted by unusually hot weather in western Europe and the soccer World Cup. The company said on Wednesday its revenue increased 3 percent to 62.5 billion kroner. The Copenhagen-based group said its operating profit outlook for this year was “mid-single-digit percentage organic growth.”
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day