UNITED STATES
Jobless rate to stay high
The nation’s jobless rate is unlikely to reach more normal levels for several years, US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday as he again defended the central bank’s forceful easing of monetary policy. One lawmaker asked Bernanke when the economy might produce enough jobs to bring the unemployment rate, currently at 7.9 percent, down to 6 percent — the top of the Fed’s long-term forecast range. “A reasonable guess for 6 percent would be around 2016, about three more years,” Bernanke told the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
SOUTH KOREA
Industrial output shrinks
Industrial output shrank for the first time in five months in January, official figures showed yesterday, dampening hopes for a robust recovery for Asia’s fourth-largest economy. Production in the mining, manufacturing, gas and electricity industries shrank a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent compared with December last year, marking the first monthly fall since August, state-run Statistics Korea said. Compared with a year earlier, January’s reading was up 7.3 percent, compared with a revised 0.5 percent decline in December.
JAPAN
Manufacturing picks up
The nation’s manufacturing showed signs of recovery in January, with industrial production up 1 percent from the month before, but down 5.1 percent from a year earlier. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said yesterday that the figures, the second straight monthly increase, suggested the slump in output had “bottomed out.” However January’s figure was below economists’ forecasts for a 1.5 percent month-on-month increase. Industrial output rose a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent in December last year from November.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Mylan set to buy Agila
US generic drugs specialist Mylan Inc said yesterday it would buy a unit of Indian pharma firm Strides Arcolab for US$1.6 billion, boosting its presence in the high-growth injectable drugs market. Pennsylvania-based Mylan said the all-cash buyout of Agila Specialities, which makes injectables, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of the year subject to regulatory approvals. The sale of Bangalore-based Agila ends months of speculation.
FINANCE
Australian dollar overvalued
The Reserve Bank of Australia said the country’s currency is held by as many as 34 central banks from Reykjavik to Santiago, and models suggested the Australian dollar was as much as 15 percent overvalued, documents showed. The central banks of Slovakia and Slovenia were recent additions to a list of 16 economies that publicly hold the Australian currency, according to papers prepared in the second half of last year and released yesterday under a Freedom of Information Act request by Bloomberg News.
FINANCE
RBS’ losses almost tripled
British state-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) said yesterday that net losses almost tripled to ￡5.97 billion (US$9.05 billion) last year, when it was hit by compensation payouts and a London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) fine. The vast loss after taxation compared with a shortfall of ￡1.997 billion in 2011, the lender announced in a results statement, adding that last year had been a “chastening” year during which it sought to “put right past mistakes.”
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS