JAPAN
GDP beats growth estimates
The economy grew at an annual pace of 1.9 percent from October to December last year, revised data from the Cabinet Office showed. The figure released yesterday was an improvement over an earlier estimate of 1.4 percent growth in the final quarter of last year. It also showed a rebound from a 2.4 percent contraction in the previous quarter for the world’s third-largest economy as storms and earthquakes crimped travel and spending. On a quarterly basis, the economy grew 0.5 percent over the period.
UNITED STATES
Households’ net worth down
American households saw their net worth plummet at the end of last year amid a rout on Wall Street, the biggest tumble since the global financial crisis, the Federal Reserve reported on Thursday. Household net worth fell US$3.7 trillion to US$104.3 trillion in the final three months of the year, the report said. The 3.5 percent decline was the largest drop in percentage terms since the fourth quarter of 2008. The value of equities alone fell US$4.6 trillion during the quarter, but this was partly offset by gains in the value of real estate and other assets, the report said.
GERMANY
Factory orders drop 2.6%
Factory orders unexpectedly fell in January, piling on more evidence that Europe’s largest economy continued to lose momentum at the start of year. Orders were down 2.6 percent, the most since June, defying expectations for a 0.5 percent gain. December last year’s reading was revised up to a 0.9 percent increase from an originally reported 1.6 percent decline.
ITALY
Women lag in labor market
The nation’s women are lagging behind the rest of Europe when it comes to economic activity, meaning it is missing out on billions of euros each year. The proportion of working-age women participating in the labor market is the lowest in the region. Less than half of Italian women are employed and raising that level to match the euro-area average of 62.3 percent could boost GDP by 88 billion euros (US$98.6 billion) each year, Bloomberg calculations showed.
BANKING
Top German banks in talks
The top executives of Deutsche Bank AG and Commerzbank AG have resumed discussions on a possible merger of the two lenders, the German magazine Focus reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Deutsche Bank chief executive officer Christian Sewing has been in intense talks with Commerzbank chief executive officer Martin Zielke for some days, after receiving a mandate from their management and supervisory boards, Focus said. In September last year, Sewing said his bank was open to a merger.
TELECOMS
No German ban on Huawei
Germany does not want to ban Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co (華為) from building its 5G networks, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier said on Thursday. However, the government would change the law to ensure that all components used in the 5G networks would be secure and that there would be no breaches of data protection rules, he said. Germany also would not use its increased veto powers to fend off foreign takeovers in this case, because the construction of the 5G network was not an issue of a merger or an acquisition, he said.
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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