JAPAN
Q2 growth less than forecast
The government has revised economic growth data for the April-to-June quarter, saying the growth had been slightly weaker than initially estimated. The Cabinet Office yesterday reported that real GDP — the total value of a nation’s goods and services — had grown at an annual rate of 1.3 percent during that period. That was slightly lower than the earlier estimate of 1.8 percent growth. The data showed that private demand had grown at a slower rate, but government investment had risen higher than the earlier estimate.
AUSTRALIA
Home-loan approvals spike
Mortgage approvals surged by the most in four years in July in the latest sign that back-to-back interest rate cuts are reviving a previously dormant property market. Home-loan approvals rose 4.2 percent, the biggest increase since June 2015 and almost triple economists’ forecasts, the Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The data showed that mortgages to first-time home buyers rose for a fourth straight month. The value of loans to investors jumped 4.7 percent, the most since 2016, and soared 5.3 percent for owner-occupiers in the biggest leap since 2015.
GERMANY
Exports bounce back
Exports from Europe’s largest economy enjoyed an unexpected rebound in July, official data showed yesterday, making for a bright spot in the data amid signs of a looming recession. About 115.2 billion euros (US$127.1 billion) of goods were sold abroad, up 0.7 percent month-on-month and 3.8 percent year-on-year, federal statistics authority Destatis said in seasonally-adjusted figures. With imports down 1.5 percent month-on-month, at 93.7 billion euros, the country’s trade surplus reached 21.4 billion euros — up from 18.1 billion in June.
MEXICO
President proposes budget
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s budget proposal for next year projects economic growth of 1.5 to 2.5 percent. The plan, presented on Sunday by Minister of Finance Arturo Herrera, calls for a primary surplus, which excludes debt interest payments, equal to 0.7 percent of GDP. It includes 86 billion pesos (US$4.4 billion) to help Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, and foresees oil output of 1.951 million barrels per day, with oil exports averaging US$49 a barrel.
INDIA
Auto sales plummet
Vehicle sales suffered their biggest monthly drop on record, as the slump in the country’s auto sector shows no sign of letting up. Deliveries slid 41 percent last month from a year earlier to 115,957 units, while sales of passenger vehicles including SUVs fell 32 percent, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers yesterday. Truck and bus sales dropped 39 percent, and two-wheeler sales — a key indicator of demand in rural India — fell 22 percent to 1.5 million units.
AVIATION
Geely buys Volocopter stake
German “flying taxi” developer Volocopter yesterday said it had raised 50 million euros from investors including automaker Geely Holding Group (吉利控股集團), risking a revived debate about Chinese investments in EU firms. “The new funds will be used towards bringing the VoloCity aircraft to commercial launch within the next three years,” Volocopter said in a statement. The Financial Times reported that Geely’s stake in Volocopter would amount to about 10 percent of the firm.
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