Economic growth held pace in France and accelerated in Spain to the fastest since 2017, easing pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to ramp up stimulus for the eurozone.
French consumer spending, boosted by French President Emmanuel Macron’s tax cuts after the “yellow vest” protests, buoyed the eurozone’s second-largest economy enough in the first quarter of this year to repeat its 0.3 percent growth at the end of last year.
Spanish expansion picked up to 0.7 percent, exceeding economists’ estimates.
Photo: Reuters
Resilience in France and a pickup in Spain provides a brightening picture for the eurozone economy after a slowdown that was alarming enough to prompt the ECB to reactivate its stimulus stance.
The region has struggled with a downturn in trade and a slump in manufacturing, which has pushed confidence down to the lowest level since 2016, and already means that Germany, the largest economy in the bloc, would trail France this year.
The slowdown has left the ECB hoping for a rebound later in the second half to avoid having to add more stimulus beyond pledges it made in March to provide banks with more cheap loans and keep rates at record lows for longer.
Other data out yesterday showed that Austria’s economy matched France’s performance, holding pace with expansion of 0.3 percent in the first quarter, while Lithuania’s grew by 1 percent.
France’s relative strength comes in part from its relative weakness: With a smaller share of export markets, it is buffeted less by trade tensions.
Macron’s tax cuts have also proven fortuitous, coming at a time when demand in the rest of the eurozone wilted.
Still, there were signs of France suffering from a trade slowdown. Export growth nearly ground to a halt in the first quarter after a surge at the end of last year.
Investment also slowed, rising only 0.3 percent, amid weak household demand.
French companies stepped up spending and reported resilient sales at the start of the year, even as many have cautioned that the outlook remains uncertain.
Sales at Valeo SA beat expectations in the first quarter, but the auto parts maker expects global automotive production to be at best flat this year in what chief executive Jacques Aschenbroich described as “a particularly unstable economic and geopolitical environment.”
Spain has consistently outgrown the 19-country region since the start of last year.
A gradual fall in unemployment and higher wages have given a sustained boost to consumer spending, a motor of the economy, offsetting weaker export demand.
The economy is set to expand 2.2 percent this year, twice the pace of the eurozone, according to official estimates.
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],”