CHINA
FDI rises 6.4 percent
Foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 6.4 percent in the first four months of the year to 305.24 billion yuan (US$44.40 billion) compared with a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday. Last month, FDI grew 6.3 percent year-on-year to 62.95 billion yuan, the ministry said, down from March’s 95.17 billion yuan. Investment from the US climbed 24.3 percent in the first four months. Separately, non-financial outbound direct investment in January to last month was US$34.64 billion, the ministry said.
UNITED STATES
Industrial output slips 0.5%
The economy is showing more signs of strain amid President Donald Trump’s multifront trade dispute, with a sharp slowdown in manufacturing. Total industrial output fell 0.5 percent last month, driven by a decline of the same magnitude in manufacturing, as vehicle production continued to slip, according to Federal Reserve data released on Wednesday. Retail sales slid 0.2 percent, which, like manufacturing, was impacted by weak auto sales.
MALAYSIA
GDP growth slows to 4.5%
The economy grew at a slower pace in the first quarter than the previous three months, dragged down by weaker trade and investment in the export-reliant nation. GDP rose 4.5 percent from a year earlier, down from 4.7 percent in the previous quarter, the central bank said yesterday. Exports contracted in February and March, resulting in quarterly growth of 0.1 percent. The central bank, which cut interest rates last week, is forecasting GDP growth of 4.3 percent to 4.8 percent this year.
FRANCE
Unemployment falls to 8.7%
Unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in 10 years, national statistics agency INSEE said yesterday, providing a boost to under-fire President Emmanuel Macron. The rate fell to 8.7 percent in the first quarter of the year, down by 0.1 percentage points from the same period last year and the lowest level since 2009, INSEE said. France has suffered from chronic high unemployment for decades and the jobless rate is still far higher than in Germany and Britain, Europe’s other two major economies.
TRADE
Tariffs deal near: Mnuchin
US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday said that Washington was close to resolving its differences with Mexico and Canada over steel and aluminum tariffs that have created friction among the trading partners. Mnuchin’s comments came as visiting Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland again warned that Canada was unlikely to ratify the US-Mexico-Canada agreement so long as the tariffs — 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum — remained in place.
INTERNET
Tencent Q1 profit up 17%
Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) reported a better-than-projected 17 percent rise to 27.21 billion yuan in first-quarter net income, helped by a one-off gain of more than US$1.5 billion from the expanding valuations of its sprawling investments in finance and gaming companies around the globe. However, some investors zeroed in on its disappointing 16 percent sales gain — the slowest pace of sales growth since it went public in 2004. The social media and entertainment giant’s shares slid 1.9 percent in Hong Kong trading yesterday.
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],”