MALAYSIA
Growth outlook dims
The economy might expand less than expected this year, in part because of slower external demand amid moderate global growth, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said. “There is no strong momentum” in global economic growth, Zeti said on Saturday in Washington in an interview that touched on China’s growing influence, global monetary policy and the ringgit. Malaysia’s interest rates are accommodative and conditions allow the nation to maintain borrowing costs “at these levels,” she said. The government in January said that growth would be from 4.5 to 5.5 percent this year, down from a projection of as much as 6 percent. Zeti said in the interview that the midpoint could be “slightly lower” at about 4.8 percent.
TRADE
Germans protest TTIP
Thousands of people marched in Berlin, Munich and other German cities on Saturday against a planned free-trade deal between Europe and the US that they fear will erode food, labor and environmental standards. Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is particularly high in Germany, in part due to rising anti-US sentiment linked to revelations of US spying and fears of digital domination by firms like Google Inc. A recent YouGov poll showed that 43 percent of Germans believe TTIP would be bad for the nation, compared with 26 percent who see it as positive. The resistance has taken German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and German industry by surprise, and they are scrambling to reverse the tide and save the deal, which proponents say could add US$100 billion in annual economic output on both sides of the Atlantic.
CYPRUS
Bankruptcy laws passed
Lawmakers on Saturday passed key bankruptcy laws designed to open the taps for more international bailout cash. The vote makes it possible to operate foreclosure laws that international creditors have demanded as a condition for extending more loans to the nation. The new laws should make it easier for banks to demand payment or seize assets, thereby reducing the banks’ own liabilities. Lawmakers had passed some of the legislative package last year, but delayed enforcement until they could approve other bills also passed on Saturday that are designed to offer protection to some vulnerable categories of debtors. The IMF has been withholding 88 million euros (US$95.1 million) in rescue money, citing Cyprus’ delay in giving banks the legal tools to deal with their load of bad debt.
TAXES
UK, Canberra target cheats
Australia is to work together with Britain to pursue multinational firms shifting profits offshore to avoid paying taxes, going “further and faster” than Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development plans, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said yesterday. Hockey, who was in the US for the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers, said the two nations announced a joint working group during the multilateral forum in Washington on Thursday and Friday last week that would build on London’s so-called “Google tax” on companies that divert profits overseas. Australia grilled technology and mining giants including Apple Inc, Google Inc, BHP Billiton Ltd and Rio Tinto PLC at an upper house Australian Senate hearing earlier this month on their tax structures.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
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