THAILAND
GDP growth slows to 2.8%
The economy grew at the slowest pace since 2014 in the first quarter as weaker global demand and trade tensions weighed on exports. GDP rose 2.8 percent from a year ago, down from a revised 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter, the National Economic and Social Development Council said yesterday. The expansion was in line with the Bloomberg survey estimate of 2.8 percent. The council said growth wouldprobably come in at 3.3 to 3.8 percent this year.
AUSTRALIA
Chinese investment plunges
Chinese investment in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in five years, new research shows. After hitting a peak of A$15.8 billion (US$10.4 billion) in 2016, Chinese firms invested A$4.8 billion in the country last year, the Australian National University said on Monday. Researchers said the data would fuel concerns that strained political ties between Beijing and Canberra are hurting the economic relationship.
UNITED STATES
Debts a moderate risk: Fed
The private sector’s mounting debts pose a “moderate” risk to the world’s largest economy, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Monday. With corporate debts reaching historic highs relative to the size of the economy, public comment has run the gamut, Powell said, either warning of grave danger or waiving off such threats as “nothing to worry about.” The truth was “likely somewhere in the middle,” Powell said, according to a copy of remarks prepared for a speech in Florida.
SINGAPORE
GDP growth beats forecast
The export-reliant economy still posted solid growth in the first quarter, with GDP rising an annualized 3.8 percent from the prior quarter, higher than the government’s earlier projection of 2 percent, as construction rebounded. Compared with a year ago, GDP rose 1.2 percent. The Ministry of Trade and Industry said it saw “pockets of strength” in the economy this year from the services industry. It narrowed its growth forecast range for this year to 1.5 to 2.5 percent from 1.5 to 3.5 percent previously.
PORTS
Japan, India eye Colombo
The governments of Japan, India and Sri Lanka have agreed to develop a container terminal at the Port of Colombo, which has attracted major investment from China under its Belt and Road initiative, a Japanese newspaper reported. The three are to sign a memorandum of understanding in the coming months to deepen the east container terminal at the newly expanded south part of the Port of Colomboit and develop a facility to allow large container ships to enter, Nikkei Asian Review reported without citing its sources.
AUTOMAKERS
Tesla falls on profit worry
Tesla Inc shares fell 3.7 percent on Monday after an analyst at WedBush said there seems to be mixed signals on demand for the electric automaker’s Model 3, which could make it harder for the company to turn a profit in the next couple of quarters and beyond. Tesla shares are down 50 percent since September last year, with concerns about demand for its Model 3 in the US at the forefront. The company lost US$702.1 million in the first quarter, among its worst quarters in two years, as sales tumbled 31 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