INDIA
Central bank lowers rates
The central bank yesterday cut its benchmark interest rate for a third time this year in a boost to newly re-elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he grapples with sluggish economic growth and decades-high unemployment. The Reserve Bank of India said the repo rate would be reduced by 25 basis points to 5.75 percent. “Our decision is driven by growth concerns and inflation concerns, in that order,” bank Governor Shaktikanta Das told reporters in Mumbai after the policy decision.
GERMANY
New orders rose in April
New orders at industrial firms kept growing in April, official data showed on Wednesday, powered by demand from outside the eurozone. Companies reported 0.3 percent more contracts in April compared with the previous month, federal statistics authority Destatis said. That was better than forecasts by analysts surveyed by Factset, but slower than March’s 0.8 percent increase.
GREECE
Worry over austerity steps
The European Commission has voiced concern over the effect new benefits and sales tax cuts are likely to have on the country’s austerity commitments. Athens has promised bailout creditors high budget surpluses for years to come, so it can continue servicing its debts, but the commission on Wednesday said that the left-wing government’s relief measures set the budget targets at risk. Greek officials insisted that the targets were realistic.
MEXICO
Fitch lowers credit rating
Fitch Ratings Inc on Wednesday downgraded the country’s credit rating, saying the nation faced greater risk due to US President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs and financial woes at state oil company Pemex. Fitch said it had downgraded Mexico’s long-term foreign currency and local currency issuer default ratings to “BBB” from “BBB+.” Moody’s changed its outlook for the nation to negative from stable.
BANKING
Swiss fines for ‘cartel’
Citigroup Inc and Barclays PLC are among global banks fined about 90 million Swiss francs (US$90.5 million) by the Competition Commission for their roles in running a foreign exchange trading cartel. Barclays was fined SF27 million, while Citigroup was handed a SF28.5 million sanction and JPMorgan Chase & Co was hit with a SF9.5 million fine, the commission said in a statement.
INSURANCE
Aviva to split, cut jobs
Aviva PLC chief executive officer Maurice Tulloch, yesterday announced a plan to cut costs and jobs, and streamline its UK business. Tulloch, who took over in March, said he would reduce Aviva’s expenses by £300 million (US$380 million) a year and shed 1,800 jobs by 2022, according to a statement. He also split the management of Aviva’s UK life and general insurance units. “Reducing Aviva’s costs is essential to remain competitive, and this means tough decisions and job losses which I do not take lightly,” Tulloch said. “I am also determined to crack Aviva’s complexity, an issue which has held back our performance for too long.”
ENERGY
PDVSA to open Russia office
Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA plans to open an office in Moscow this month, Venezuelan Oil and Mining Manuel Quevedo said yesterday during a trip to St Petersburg, Interfax news agency reported.
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],”