CHINA
Alarm on currency outflows
Currency outflows might be bigger than they look, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc warning that a rising amount of capital is exiting the nation in yuan rather than in US dollars. While the nation’s foreign exchange reserves have stabilized and lenders’ net foreign exchange purchases for clients have fallen close to a one-year low, official data showed that US$27.7 billion in yuan payments left the nation in August. That is compared with a monthly average of US$4.4 billion in the five years through 2014. Such large cross-border moves need to be taken into account when measuring currency outflows, said M.K. Tang (鄧敏強), Hong Kong-based senior China economist at Goldman Sachs. Any sign of increased capital outflows could disturb a recent calm in China’s foreign exchange market, adding to pressure from a potential US Federal Reserve interest rate increase and denting the yuan’s image as the world’s newest global reserve currency.
SINGAPORE
Policy move not expected
The central bank will probably refrain from easing policy when it meets this week, saving its ammunition for next year as the economic outlook deteriorates. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the currency rather than interest rates to manage the economy, is expected to maintain its current policy settings, according to 21 of 23 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The central bank eased twice last year and again in April at the first of this year’s two scheduled meetings, when it shifted to a neutral stance of zero appreciation for the Singapore dollar. Growth and inflation have not slowed enough to justify further action, according to Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. The bank is set to reserve its firepower for next year, when the city is likely to feel more pain from China’s slowdown and the slump in oil prices that has hurt the local marine and offshore industry.
TELECOMS
Taiwan Mobile profit rises
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the nation’s No. 2 telecom, yesterday reported NT$1.24 billion (US$39.22 million) in net profit for last month on revenue of NT$9.5 billion. The firm cited the launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 7 and fast-growing 4G subscriptions for the 6 percent annual increase in revenue. In the first nine months of this year, net profit dropped slightly to NT$11.88 billion, compared with NT$11.92 billion in the same period last year, reaching 88 percent of the company’s net profit forecast of NT$13.5 billion for this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Innovation Pavilion to open
The American Innovation Pavilion is to open today at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei in a ceremony hosted by Minister Without Portfolio Audrey Tang (唐鳳) and American Institute in Taiwan Director Kin Moy, the event’s organizer said yesterday. The opening ceremony is to feature a speech by Tang delivered using virtual-reality technology. The minister is also involved in promoting digital technology to help people become more familiar with innovative technological developments, according to the Taiwan Innovation Center, which created the pavilion by combining US technology and Taiwanese entrepreneurship. The pavilion is to focus on artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, digital learning and the maker movement, the center said, adding that it will give visitors a sneak peek at the future of technology and encourage them to build their own ventures through activities and exhibitions.
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
PLANS: MSI is also planning to upgrade its service center in the Netherlands Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星) yesterday said it plans to set up a server assembly line at its Poland service center this year at the earliest. The computer and peripherals manufacturer expects that the new server assembly line would shorten transportation times in shipments to European countries, a company spokesperson told the Taipei Times by telephone. MSI manufactures motherboards, graphics cards, notebook computers, servers, optical storage devices and communication devices. The company operates plants in Taiwan and China, and runs a global network of service centers. The company is also considering upgrading its service center in the Netherlands into a
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
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