RUSSIA
Growth forecast downgraded
Russia’s economy minister warned yesterday that officials will probably have to downgrade this year’s growth forecast for the second time in months because of a poor first-half performance. The Federal State Statistics Service reported on Aug. 9 that Russia’s economy expanded by just 1.4 percent of gross domestic product compared to the first six months of last year. The result fell far short of President Vladimir Putin’s promise of 5 percent growth for the year and the government’s own downwardly revised forecast of 2.4 percent.
MEXICO
Growth down 3.1 percent
The Mexican government has lowered its forecast for the nation’s economic growth this year to 1.8 percent. That is down from the 3.1 percent gain it predicted earlier this year. The National Statistics Institute says the country’s GDP expanded only 1.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, compared with the same quarter of last year. Compared to the first quarter, GDP actually contracted 0.74 percent in the April-June period. Growth for the first half of this year averaged 1 percent, due to weakness in the mining and construction sectors.
SPAIN
Bank to lay off 2,500 staff
Nationalized Spanish lender Catalunya Banc plans to lay off nearly 2,500 workers under a eurozone bailout deal for Spain’s banks, a union source said on Tuesday. A union representative in the company said the bank had drawn up a restructuring plan under which 2,453 of its 7,200 workers will be laid off and 450 of its 1,200 branches shut down. Catalunya Banc was formed in 2010 from the fusion of three savings banks in the Catalonia region.
ALCOHOL
Heineken earnings fall 17%
Heineken NV says first-half earnings fell 17 percent because of bad weather, weak “consumer sentiment” in Europe and the US, and slowing growth in developing countries. Net profit at the world’s third-largest brewer was 639 million euros (US$858 million), from 766 million euros a year ago. Revenues rose 3 percent to 10.4 billion euros, but that was due to Heineken’s takeover of Asian Pacific Breweries, the maker of Tiger beer. Chief executive Jean Francois van Boxmeer said yesterday the outlook for the second half is similar. The company plans to keep cutting costs.
TELECOMS
China Telecom profits grew
State-owned China Telecom (中國電信) says profits grew in the first half of the year as revenue from iPhone sales kicked in. China’s third-biggest mobile operator by subscribers said yesterday that profit rose 16 percent to 10.2 billion yuan (US$1.7 billion) in the January-June period. Revenue rose 14 percent to 157.5 billion yuan. The company is the second Chinese phone company to offer Apple’s popular iPhone.
RETAIL
Barnes & Noble posts loss
US bookseller Barnes & Noble on Tuesday reported a net loss of US$87 million in the quarter to July 27, while its founder announced the withdrawal of an offer to buy the retail arm of the struggling company. Revenues fell both in the retail book division and the Nook digital unit, which produces tablet computers and e-readers. In its quarterly earnings statement, the firm said chairman Leonard Riggio advised the board of directors that he has “suspended his efforts to make an offer for the company’s retail business.”
OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that its Chinese rival DeepSeek (深度求索) is using unfair and increasingly sophisticated methods to extract results from leading US artificial intelligence (AI) models to train the next generation of its breakthrough R1 chatbot, a memo reviewed by Bloomberg News showed. In the memo, sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Select Committee on China, OpenAI said that DeepSeek had used so-called distillation techniques as part of “ongoing efforts to free-ride on the capabilities developed by OpenAI and other US frontier labs.” The company said it had detected “new, obfuscated methods” designed to evade OpenAI’s defenses
NEW IMPORTS: Car dealer PG Union Corp said it would consider introducing US-made models such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Stellantis’ RAM 1500 to Taiwan Tesla Taiwan yesterday said that it does not plan to cut its car prices in the wake of Washington and Taipei signing the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade on Thursday to eliminate tariffs on US-made cars. On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz Taiwan said it is planning to lower the price of its five models imported from the US after the zero tariff comes into effect. Tesla in a statement said it has no plan to adjust the prices of the US-made Model 3, Model S and Model X as tariffs are not the only factor the automaker uses to determine pricing policies. Tesla said
China’s top chipmaker has warned that breakaway spending on artificial intelligence (AI) chips is bringing forward years of future demand, raising the risk that some data centers could sit idle. “Companies would love to build 10 years’ worth of data center capacity within one or two years,” Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) cochief executive officer Zhao Haijun (趙海軍) said yesterday on a call with analysts. “As for what exactly these data centers will do, that hasn’t been fully thought through.” Moody’s Ratings projects that AI-related infrastructure investment would exceed US$3 trillion over the next five years, as developers pour eye-watering sums
Australian singer Kylie Minogue says “nothing compares” to performing live, but becoming an international wine magnate in under six years has been quite a thrill for the Spinning Around star. Minogue launched her first own-label wine in 2020 in partnership with celebrity drinks expert Paul Schaafsma, starting with a basic rose but quickly expanding to include sparkling, no-alcohol and premium rose offerings. The actress and singer has since wracked up sales of around 25 million bottles, with her carefully branded products pitched at low-to mid-range prices in dozens of countries. Britain, Australia and the United States are the biggest markets. “Nothing compares to performing
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