BANKING
Madrid props up Bankia
Spain has made a 4.5 billion euro (US$5.7 billion) non-cash injection into Bankia, a money-losing, state-rescued lender at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis. Madrid moved urgently to shore up Bankia’s depleted coffers, delivering the capital as an advance payment on a eurozone banking rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros that was agreed in June. The state-backed Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring acted on Wednesday, Bankia and its parent group Banco Financiero de Ahorros said in statements issued the same day.
TRADE
Bangkok cuts export growth
Thailand’s Ministry of Finance slashed its forecast for export growth this year to 4.5 percent from 12.8 percent as Europe’s debt crisis erodes demand for the nation’s electronics, textiles, rice and rubber. Economic growth may also fall short of the ministry’s 5.7 percent projection, Somchai Sujjapongse, head of the Ministry of Finance’s fiscal policy office, said in Bangkok yesterday.
INTEREST RATES
Manila, NZ retain key rate
The Philippine central bank left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at a record low of 3.75 percent, in line with expectations it will hold fire before it cuts rates at least one more time by the end of the year. New Zealand’s central bank yesterday also held interest rates at a record low 2.5 percent, citing slowing growth in China and ongoing uncertainty in Europe. The official cash rate has been at 2.5 percent since March last year.
SWITZERLAND
SNB cuts GDP forecast
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) yesterday kept its low key rate unchanged and said the current global economic climate was forcing it to cut its economic growth outlook for this year. The Swiss central bank’s target range for the franc’s three-month London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) would remain unchanged at 0 percent to 0.25 percent, a bank spokesman said in a conference call with reporters. The SNB said it now expected the country’s GDP this year to tick in at 1.0 percent, compared with its previous estimate of 1.5 percent.
FOOD
Nestle sees China sales up
Nestle SA, the world’s largest food company, said China sales would probably grow about 20 percent this year because of rising wages and the government’s policy to boost local consumption. The slowing growth of Asia’s biggest economy has not affected the local operations of the Vevey, Switzerland-based company, which has seen expansion in most of its businesses, including dairy products and coffee, Greater China chairman Roland Decorvet said in an interview yesterday. Nestle’s China sales increased by more than 20 percent last year and will grow by a double-digit percentage next year, he said.
GAMING
New Wii out in December
Nintendo Co, the world’s biggest video-game machine maker, will sell its new Wii U console in Japan beginning in December for at least ￥26,250 (US$338) as the company tries to recover from its first annual loss. Nintendo will also sell a premium version for ￥31,500 starting on Dec. 8, president Satoru Iwata said in a Web cast yesterday. The company faces growing competition from games played online and on smartphones from companies including Apple Inc, which will begin selling the iPhone 5 next week.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks
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