CHINA
Inflation slows to 3 percent
Inflation slowed to 3 percent last month to snap two months of acceleration in consumer prices, official figures showed yesterday, well under the government’s target for the year. The annual rise in the consumer price index compared with an increase of 3.2 percent recorded in October, the National Bureau of Statistics announced. It was also lower than the median forecast of 3.1 percent by 11 economists in a Wall Street Journal survey reported by Dow Jones Newswires. Inflation for the first 11 months of the year came in at 2.6 percent, far below the government’s full-year target of 3.5 percent.
TRADE
Germany’s surplus declined
Germany’s trade surplus contracted in October as imports grew faster than exports, falling to 16.8 billion euros (US$23 billion) from 18.7 billion euros in September, official data showed yesterday. In seasonally adjusted terms, Germany exported goods worth 92.9 billion euros, in October, up only fractionally from 92.7 billion euros in September, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement. Imports, on the other hand, rose by a much stronger 2.8 percent to 76.1 billion euros from 74 billion euros.
TELECOMS
AAPT to be sold to TPG
New Zealand’s dominant telecommunications company Telecom Corp announced a deal yesterday to sell its Australian arm, AAPT, to Sydney-based TPG Telecom for A$450 million (US$411 million). Telecom said the sale was part of a restructuring that involves the company, which in August posted a fall in annual net profit of almost 80 percent, focusing on its home market. Under the changes, Telecom is attempting to become more than a mobile and fixed-line infrastructure provider, branching out into areas such as entertainment and cloud computing to meet evolving demand.
LABOR
Britain’s wages growing fast
Wages in Britain grew at their fastest rate in six years last month, a labor market survey indicated on yesterday, providing a rare signal that a long-term decline in real incomes is being checked by a return to economic growth. Prices have been consistently outpacing wages in Britain in recent years, squeezing household budgets and making the cost of living a key political battleground ahead of a general election due in 2015. However, last month starting salaries for permanent staff rose at their highest rate since November 2007, according to survey data from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultancy KPMG. REC chief executive Kevin Green said he expected salaries to keep increasing into next year.
BANKING
HSBC may float UK arm
HSBC Holdings PLC is considering the flotation of up to 30 percent of its British retail and commercial banking arm, the Financial Times reported, a move that would help it cope with planned new rules that demand that British banks ringfence their retail arms. Citing three people familiar with the project, the FT said the plan was at an early stage, but the matter had been discussed with investors and informally at board level. The paper added that investors estimate such a business could float with a market capitalization of about ￡20 billion (US$32.7 billion).
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
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