RUSSIA
Growth forecast lowered
The World Bank yesterday said that it had lowered its forecast for annual economic growth this year to 1.4 percent from a projection of 1.5 percent in January. “A downgraded forecast for gross domestic product growth in 2019 reflects lower oil prices; the medium-term outlook remains modest,” the World Bank said. Real GDP growth exceeded expectations last year, reaching 2.3 percent, but the rise was largely due to “one-off effects in non-housing construction,” the bank said.
ITALY
Economic situation ‘delicate’
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici yesterday said that the nation’s economic situation was “delicate” and needed to be monitored closely. Arriving at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Bucharest, Moscovici cited non-EU figures pointing to no growth or even recession for Italy. “These are figures that we need to follow very closely,” he said. In its latest estimates released in February, the European Commission forecast 0.2 percent growth for the nation this year.
AUTOMAKERS
Ghosn to remain in custody
Former Nissan Motor Co chief executive Carlos Ghosn is to remain in custody until at least April 14, a Japanese court ruled yesterday, as prosecutors quizzed him over fresh allegations of financial misconduct. The Tokyo District Court said in a statement that it had accepted a request from prosecutors to detain the 65-year-old auto tycoon for a further 10-day period that can subsequently be extended once more. Ghosn’s lead lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, has vowed to appeal the decision.
BANKING
Swedbank chairman quits
Swedbank AB chairman Lars Idermark yesterday said that he would leave his position at the bank with immediate effect, just a week after Swedbank’s chief executive was ousted over her handling of a fast-growing money laundering scandal. Idermark said in a statement that he was stepping down as the intense attention would affect his role as chief executive of forestry group Sodra. The allegations against Swedbank have linked it to the US$230 billion Danske Bank A/S Estonian money laundering scandal.
ENERGY
Court rejects Texaco appeal
The Canadian Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear an appeal from a group of Ecuadoran villagers seeking compensation from the Canadian subsidiary of US energy giant Chevron Corp over oil pollution in the Amazon jungle. The villagers from central Ecuador want the company to pay for pollution of native lands between 1964 and 1992 by Texaco, a US oil subsidiary the firm bought in 2001. The decision puts an end to the group’s attempt to sue Chevron Canada Ltd for US$9.5 billion.
JAPAN
Wages fall unexpectedly
Wages fell unexpectedly in February, adding to concerns that the economy is losing momentum and that inflation might evaporate later this year. Household spending increased slightly less than forecast. Labor cash earnings fell 0.8 percent year-on-year, the ministry of health, labor and welfare reported yesterday, compared with projections for them to advance 0.9 percent. Household spending rose 1.7 percent from a year earlier, data from the ministry of internal affairs and communications showed, versus the median estimate of an increase of 1.9 percent.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to