ECONOMY
Australian inflation dips
Australian inflation came in lower than expected yesterday, climbing a seasonally adjusted 0.5 percent last quarter and raising speculation about an interest rate cut. The Bureau of Statistics said the consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.5 percent after seasonal adjustments in the three months to Dec. 31 and was 2.2 percent higher year-on-year. Underlying inflation, which strips out volatile items and is used by the Reserve Bank of Australia in determining monetary policy, was 0.5 percent in the December quarter, down from 0.7 percent in the previous quarter.
ECONOMY
Singapore’s CPI rises 4.3%
Singapore’s inflation rose to the highest in three months last month, reducing the central bank’s scope to ease monetary policy to boost growth. The CPI rose 4.3 percent from a year earlier, after climbing 3.6 percent in November, the Department of Statistics said yesterday. Price gains averaged 4.6 percent last year, the government said. The central bank forecasts price gains will range between 3.5 percent and 4.5 percent this year.
AVIATION
Thales joins Boeing probe
French electrical system giant Thales has joined a Japan-US probe into a battery fire that forced a Boeing 787 Dreamliner to make an emergency landing in Japan, officials said yesterday. Two Thales engineers have been taking part in a CT scan of the aircraft’s lithium-ion battery at a Japan space agency facility in Tokyo since Tuesday, a Japan Transport Safety Board spokeswoman said. Thales designed the Dreamliner’s electrical system and commissioned Japanese firm GS Yuasa to produce the next-generation aircraft’s batteries.
SOFTWARE
SAP revenues rise
German software giant SAP yesterday said it expects a further strong improvement in sales this year from last year’s record levels, and profits to rise after falling last year. SAP said overall revenues rose 14 percent to 16.22 billion euros (US$21.6 billion) and software and software-related sales were up 16 percent at 13.16 billion euros, exceeding expectations for an increase of 10.5 percent to 12.5 percent. However, operating profit fell 17 percent to 4.06 billion euros due to acquisition-related charges, the group said. Bottom-line net profit was down 18 percent at 2.826 billion euros, it said.
CONGLOMERATES
Siemens’ net profit drops
Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG said its net earnings declined 12 percent in the October-December quarter, as new orders declined and the company took one-time charges — some related to the solar power business it is selling. The company yesterday said it earned 1.21 billion euros in its fiscal first quarter, compared with 1.38 billion euros a year earlier. Revenue climbed 2 percent to 18.13 billion euros from 17.86 billion euros. Siemens said a 150 million euros loss at the solar business contributed to the net profit decline. Its transport business also booked charges of 116 million euros.
RETAIL
Ikea profit up 8% last year
Swedish furniture giant Ikea yesterday reported an 8 percent rise in net profit last year and said it benefited as consumers became more cost conscious. Full-year net income rose 8 percent to 3.2 billion euros, while revenue climbed 9.8 percent to 27.6 billion euros.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
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