MACROECONOMICS
German wages rose in Q2
German real wages rose by 2.3 percent on the year in the second quarter, the Federal Statistics Office said yesterday. Nominal wages increased by 2.4 percent on the year between April and June while consumer prices rose by 0.1 percent in the second quarter. The increase was mainly driven by strong wage hikes for workers in the real estate business, transport and logistics sector as well as catering industry.
NEW ZEALAND
Interest rates left unchanged
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday left interest rates at a record low of 2 percent, but warned more cuts were likely. The decision was widely expected after the bank trimmed its base rate by 0.25 points last month. Annual inflation was 0.4 percent in the second quarter and has stubbornly remained below the central bank’s 1 percent to 3 percent target for seven quarters.
TAXATION
Mexicans probed after leaks
The Tax Authority of Mexico on Wednesday announced that the financial affairs of hundreds of Mexicans mentioned in a cache of documents dubbed the “Bahamas Leaks” will be checked for tax violations. More than 400 Mexicans, including lawyers, former officials, and owners of offshore companies in the Bahamas, were named in leaks published in a database on Wednesday by the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media outlets.
INVESTMENT
NSE asked to investigate
India’s markets regulator has asked the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) to investigate claims of some high-frequency trading firms gaining unfair access at the country’s biggest bourse. The Securities & Exchange Board of India has also asked the exchange to deposit all revenue from fiber links between colocation facilities, which refers to placing traders’ servers next to that of an exchange, and brokers’ offices in an escrow account pending the probe, NSE chairman Ashok Chawla said yesterday. The NSE will hire an external agency to investigate the “alleged manipulation” of its technology and will submit a report to the regulator within three months, Chawla said.
AUTOMAKERS
Upgrade for Tesla software
Tesla Motors Inc customers will get enhanced radar and other features in an over-the-air software update that started on Wednesday night. The update makes the Model S sedan and Model X SUV rely more on radar than cameras when driving in Tesla’s semi-autonomous Autopilot mode. Teslas made after October 2014 have radar. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the change should help avoid crashes like the one that killed a Tesla driver in Florida in May. That driver — who was using Autopilot — crashed into a tractor-trailer that Tesla’s camera failed to detect.
UNITED KINGDOM
Poll finds investment freeze
A new Bank of England survey suggests some businesses are freezing both investment and hiring in the aftermath of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, with broadly flat levels of spending in the next six months to a year. The so-called agents’ summary of business conditions revealed that in some sectors, such as commercial real estate, “all non-essential recruitment had been frozen.” However, the bank said businesses were more optimistic following the initial shock of the vote.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) expects its addressable market to grow by a low single-digit percentage this year, lower than the overall foundry industry’s 15 percent expansion and the global semiconductor industry’s 10 percent growth, the contract chipmaker said yesterday after reporting the worst profit in four-and-a-half years in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth would be fueled by demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, a moderate recovery in consumer electronics and an increase in semiconductor content, UMC said. “UMC’s goal is to outgrow our addressable market while maintaining our structural profitability,” UMC copresident Jason Wang (王石) told an online earnings
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