NEW ZEALAND
Slow GDP growth in Q1
Economic growth remained sluggish at 0.6 percent in the first three months of this year, official data showed yesterday, fueling expectations of another interest rate cut before year’s end. The modest increase in GDP for the quarter was the same as the growth rate in the final three months of last year, Statistics New Zealand said. It said the figure was boosted by a 3.7 percent rise in construction and brought the country’s annual growth to 2.7 percent for the year to March 31. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut its base rate to a record low of 1.5 percent last month.
NORWAY
Interest rates raised again
The nation’s central bank yesterday delivered its third interest rate hike since September last year and signaled there is more to come, in a move that further widens the gap between it and the world’s major central banks. “Our current assessment of the outlook and balance of risks suggests that the policy rate will most likely be increased further in the course of 2019,” Norges Bank Governor Oystein Olsen said in a statement. The deposit rate was raised by a quarter point to 1.25 percent, as expected. The krone surged 1 percent against the euro, its strongest gain since March. Against the US dollar, the krone was up 1.5 percent.
INDIA
Ministry mulls tax measures
The nation is considering increasing the personal income tax threshold in next month’s budget, people familiar with the matter said yesterday, as authorities seek to kick-start consumption in the economy. Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman might raise the tax exemption limit for working-age individuals to 300,000 rupees (US$4,312) of their annual income, up from 250,000 rupees, the people said. The tax measures have not been finalized yet. The economy has slowed sharply this year, with growth reaching a five-year low of 5.8 percent in the first three months of the year.
SOUTH KOREA
Sustainability bonds surge
The nation has this year become the world’s biggest source of so-called sustainability bonds, as borrowers rush to sell notes that can fund projects to help the middle-class and smaller firms in a sluggish economy. Sales of debt globally for sustainability projects have more than doubled this year to US$16.4 billion, and South Korea makes up about 16 percent of that total, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The Ministry of Economy and Finance sold its first green and sustainability note last week, following issuance of such debt this year by five domestic firms, including KEB Hana Bank and Kookmin Bank.
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle beats expectations
Oracle Corp on Wednesday reported quarterly sales that topped Wall Street estimates on strong demand for applications, marking the world’s second-largest software maker’s return to growth amid a crucial transition to cloud-based computing. Revenue for the fourth quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, which ended on May 31, increased to US$11.1 billion, up 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Analysts, on average, projected US$10.9 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Profit, excluding some expenses, was US$1.16 a share, compared with estimates of US$1.07 a share.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day