FRANCE
Central bank eyes GDP gain
The Bank of France yesterday forecast a small gain in GDP of 0.1 percent in its first estimate of growth in the first quarter of this year. The forecast is the same as that of the national statistics agency INSEE, which publishes official GDP figures. The government is hoping for 0.8 percent GDP growth this year, but INSEE forecasts the economy is likely to expand by just 0.1 percent in the first half of this year as the eurozone states continue to cut spending to reduce their deficits.
JAPAN
Account surplus shrinks
The nation’s current account surplus last year shrank to its lowest in almost three decades, data showed yesterday, as exports to China and Europe slumped. The Finance Ministry said the current account, the broadest measure of Japan’s trade with the rest of the world, came in at ￥4.7 trillion (US$50 billion) last year, the smallest annual surplus since comparable data was made available in 1985. The news was also poor for December last year, with the country logging a monthly deficit of ￥264.1 billion, reversing a year-earlier surplus of ￥265.7 billion.
SOUTH KOREA
Mutual funds disappoint
The nation’s mutual funds recorded the largest outflows since 2009 last week amid “disappointing” earnings, Citigroup Inc said. The nation’s funds lost 5 percent of assets under management, equal to US$671 million of outflows, in the week ended Wednesday, Markus Rosgen and Yue Hin Pong, Hong Kong-based Citigroup analysts, wrote in a report yesterday, citing EPFR data. Asian funds lured US$981 million, the 22nd straight week of inflows, the analysts wrote. The KOSPI has fallen 2.5 percent this year.
TECHNOLOGY
LinkedIn beats forecasts
LinkedIn Corp, the biggest business-focused social media Web site, reported fourth-quarter sales and profit that beat estimates as marketers bolstered spending on the Web site and the firm added subscribers. Revenue jumped 81 percent to US$303.6 million, the company said in a statement on Thursday, beating an average analysts’ estimate of US$279.7 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit excluding some items was US$0.35 a share, beating the US$0.19 forecast.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan sticking to forecast
Nissan Motor Co said yesterday its net profit in the October-December quarter fell 34.6 percent from a year earlier, but the Japanese automaker kept its full-year profit forecast unchanged. The company said it earned ￥54.1 billion in the period on sales of ￥2.21 trillion, down 5.3 percent year-on-year. It expects to book a net profit of ￥320 billion in the fiscal year to March. Nissan’s global vehicle sales slipped 3.8 percent in the quarter to 1.16 million units, hit by a slumping European market and tough conditions in China.
ADVERTISING
Japan firm eyes Myanmar
Japanese advertising and public relations company Dentsu Inc will open an office in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon next week, in the latest push by a Japanese firm to break into the potentially lucrative new market. The firm, the largest of its kind in Japan, said on Thursday it would work with both foreign and local companies seeking to cash in on new opportunities in the country of 62 million people. Dentsu said it was looking to the 27th Southeast Asian Games, which Myanmar is set to host in December, as a source of advertising contracts.
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
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