FRANCE
Growth will hold: Insee
Growth will hold up in the first half in the face of a slowing global economy as consumer spending and investment bolster domestic demand, national statistics office Insee said on Thursday. The economy will expand 0.4 percent in both the first and the second quarters, compared with 0.3 percent in the final three months of last year, Insee said. Corporate investment will grow 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent consecutively and consumer spending will climb 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent, the statistics office estimates.
TECHNOLOGY
Alphabet to sell Boston
Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, is seeking to sell its Boston Dynamics subsidiary specialized in developing and manufacturing robots, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Financial agency Bloomberg, which also reported Alphabet intends to sell the company it acquired in 2013 as part of efforts to boost its efforts in robotics, cited two people with knowledge of the company’s plans. Toyota Motor Corp and Amazon.com Inc are seen as potential buyers of Boston Dynamics, Bloomberg reported, as Alphabet “concluded that Boston Dynamics is not likely to produce a marketable product in the next few years.”
UNITED KINGDOM
BOE maintains rate
The Bank of England (BOE) has voted to keep its main interest rate on hold, it said on Thursday, faced with a weak growth outlook at home and abroad. The move by the Monetary Policy Committee to keep borrowing costs at 0.50 percent, where they have stood for seven years, comes a day after the US Federal Reserve also left rates unchanged. The BOE also maintained the amount of cash stimulus, or quantitative easing, pumping around the British economy at £375 billion (US$540 billion).
EUROZONE
Core inflation at 0.8%
Underlying inflation pressures in the 19-country eurozone were not as subdued last month as initially thought, official figures showed on Thursday. The EU’s statistical agency said the core rate, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, was 0.8 percent in the year to last month, up from the initial estimate of 0.7 percent. The headline number, which includes those typically more volatile items, was left unchanged at minus-0.2 percent.
REAL ESTATE
Juwai.com plans IPO
Juwai.com (居外網), a property search engine that lists real estate around the world for Chinese buyers, is seeking to go public in Australia as early as this year. The firm is raising funds from institutional investors and strategic partners before selling shares in an initial public offering (IPO) at the end of the year or in early next year, Juwai chief executive officer Charles Pittar said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. He declined to provide additional details. Juwai, based in Hong Kong and Shanghai, has 2 million unique visitors per month.
MACHINERY
Caterpillar to trail estimates
Caterpillar Inc, the biggest maker of construction and mining machinery, said first-quarter sales and profit will trail analyst estimates as miners cut billions from their investment budgets to weather a commodity rout. Sales will be US$9.3 billion to US$9.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share will be US$0.65 to US$0.70, the company said on Thursday. That is below the average estimates of US$10.2 billion and US$0.95 respectively by analysts.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday held its first board of directors meeting in the US, at which it did not unveil any new US investments despite mounting tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, prompting market speculation that TSMC might consider boosting its chip capacity in the US or ramping up production of advanced chips such as those using a 2-nanometer technology process at its Arizona fabs ahead of schedule. Speculation also swirled that the chipmaker might consider building its own advanced packaging capacity in the US as part
A move by US President Donald Trump to slap a 25 percent tariff on all steel imports is expected to place Taiwan-made steel, which already has a 25 percent tariff, on an equal footing, the Taiwan Steel & Iron Industries Association said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, association chairman Hwang Chien-chih (黃建智) said such an equal footing is expected to boost Taiwan’s competitive edge against other countries in the US market, describing the tariffs as "positive" for Taiwanese steel exporters. On Monday, Trump signed two executive orders imposing the new metal tariffs on imported steel and aluminum with no exceptions and exemptions, effective