AUSTRALIA
Economy slows down
The economy slowed last quarter as interest-rate cuts and government tax rebates failed to spur household spending, reinforcing expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia will need to resume easing next year. GDP advanced 0.4 percent from the second quarter, when it rose an upwardly revised 0.6 percent, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said in Sydney yesterday. Economists forecast 0.5 percent for the three months through September. From a year earlier, GDP gained 1.7 percent, in line with estimates. The report came a day after the bank held interest rates at 0.75 percent following three cuts since June.
HONG KONG
Business outlook worsens
Business outlook worsened further last month with the territory mired in recession amid protests and a volatile macroeconomic picture. The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the whole economy fell to 38.5 for the lowest reading since April 2003, down from 39.3 a month earlier, according to IHS Markit, which surveyed about 400 private-sector companies. The gauge has now been below the 50 level that divides expansion and contraction since April last year. The combined PMI readings for October and last month put the economy on track to contract more than 5 percent in the fourth quarter of this year barring a significant rebound this month, it said.
INDIA
Services sector rebounds
The country’s dominant services sector rebounded last month, providing some cautious optimism that the economy might be turning the corner. The IHS Markit India Services PMI rose to a four-month high of 52.7, the first time in three months that the reading has been above 50 to mark an expansion in output. The improvement was driven by higher orders and strengthening business confidence. The index is still below its long-run average of 54.2. The rise in the services index followed data earlier this week showing manufacturing also improved last month, resulting in the composite PMI jumping from 49.6 to 52.7.
ENERGY
Tariffs to hurt solar sector
Tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump would cost the US solar industry US$19 billion in investment and lead to more than 62,000 lost jobs by 2021, the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a report. It found that the tariffs prompted a handful of manufacturers to open panel factories in the US, but they drove up costs to build solar farms. Developers canceled 10.5 gigawatts of projects, enough to power 1.8 million homes. The net impact was 31 jobs lost for every new position created by the duties, the report said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Regulator reiterates drug ban
The Drug Controller General of India regulator has asked all states to enforce a court directive prohibiting online medicine sales, a senior government official said on Tuesday, raising industry concerns that it could disrupt some online businesses. The country is yet to finalize regulations for online drug sales, or e-pharmacies, but the growth of several online sellers, such as Medlife International, Netmeds, Temasek Holdings Pte-backed PharmEasy and Sequoia Capital-backed 1mg, has threatened traditional drugstore businesses. The Delhi High Court in December last year said the government must ensure online sales are prohibited for the time being, as it heard a petition from a doctor who said unregulated online sales could lead to abuse of medicines.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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