JAPAN
Chronic deflation persists
Authorities report that the nation’s chronic deflation persisted in January, with consumer prices falling 0.2 percent from a year earlier, though the employment situation showed a modest improvement. Among other mixed signals, the government reported that non-financial corporate investment dropped 8.7 percent in the final quarter of last year from a year earlier, the first such decline in five quarters, as weak exports cast a pall on business sentiment. The government also said unemployment declined to 4.2 percent in January from 4.3 percent in December last year.
SOUTH KOREA
Trade balance shows surplus
Exports and imports fell last month from a year earlier, but the trade balance showed a surplus for the 13th straight month, government data showed yesterday. Exports totalled US$42.33 billion, down 8.6 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Imports slipped 10.7 percent on-year to US$40.27 billion, leaving a US$2.06 billion surplus.
INDONESIA
Inflation hits 20-month high
Inflation last month hit a 20-month high after government measures to limit commodity imports pushed up consumer prices, an official said yesterday. Inflation rose 5.31 percent year-on-year, edging closer to the target range cap of 5.5 percent, while month-on-month inflation was 0.75 percent, slower than the four-year high recorded in January of 1.03 percent. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food prices, slowed to 4.29 percent from 4.32 percent in January.
GERMANY
Retail sales increase
Retail sales showed an unexpectedly strong increase in January, wiping out the decline seen the previous month, official data showed yesterday. Retail sales rose by 3.1 percent in January compared with December in price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, according to provisional figures by the federal statistics office Destatis. On a 12-month basis, retail sales were up by 2.4 percent in January.
COSMETICS
Firm to adhere to testing ban
Japan’s Shiseido yesterday said it was mostly dropping animal-tested cosmetics, as the EU gets set to finalize a sweeping ban on the sale of such products later this month. However, the company said exceptions to the policy meant it would still allow animal testing when that was the only way of proving the safety of products already being sold in the market, and in some countries where animal testing is legally required.
ADVERTISING
WPP posts annual growth
WPP, the world’s largest advertising company, recovered from third quarter weakness to post annual growth of 2.9 percent in organic revenue, ahead of expectations. WPP, whose portfolio includes Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam, works for clients including Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Shell, said headline operating margins rose 0.5 points to 14.8 percent, in line with expectations.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook agrees to buy Atlas
Facebook agreed on Thursday to buy Atlas Advertiser Suite from Microsoft as part of an effort to boost ad revenues at the massive social network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlas was part of the aQuantive group acquired by Microsoft, which ended up in a writedown and loss for Microsoft last year.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such