INDIA
GDP could grow 7.5%
Authorities yesterday said they expect economic growth to rise to between 7 and 7.5 percent in the next fiscal year as the negative impact of two controversial reforms diminishes. The economy is expected to grow 6.75 percent this fiscal year on the back of a recovery in the second half, the government said in its economic report released before the annual budget. Growth has been hit by the introduction of a new national goods and services tax last year and by a controversial 2016 move to withdraw all high-value banknotes from circulation. The economy has also been helped by a rise in exports, Indian Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian told reporters.
UNITED STATES
Singapore rules real estate
Singapore last year ousted China to become the biggest Asian investor in US commercial property. It was the first time since 2012 that the city outspent China, data from Real Capital Analytics and Cushman & Wakefield Inc showed. Deals by Chinese investors plunged 66 percent to US$5.9 billion as regulators cracked down on capital outflows. “We expect Singapore to continue to be the single largest source of Asian investments in the US real estate markets,” Cushman regional executive director of capital markets for Asia-Pacific Priyaranjan Kumar said, adding that money might flow into data centers, student accommodation and logistics.
GERMANY
Chinese money raises fears
Germany wants to acquire the legal means to take a closer look at bids from Chinese companies to acquire German and European companies to better protect technologies, German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Matthias Machnig told newspaper Welt am Sonntag. Machnig said it is urgent that proposed Europe-wide measures to police surging Chinese investment be adopted by the end of this year. “It is essential that we get a tougher law in the European Union this year to resist takeover fantasies or outflows of technology or know-how,” he said in an interview, excerpts of which were made available on Saturday. The paper cited a study by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research that showed the volume of known Chinese investments in Germany had risen to 12.1 billion euros (US$15 billion) last year from about 11 billion in 2016 and just 100 million euros seven years ago.
VIETNAM
Moody’s urges tighter policy
Vietnam should be cautious against more monetary accommodation, as it could pose risks to the economy and the banking sector, Moody’s Investors Service said. “Given the government’s focus appears to be towards supporting headline growth, the State Bank of Vietnam may continue to pursue a neutral to accommodative policy stance,” Anushka Shah, Moody’s sovereign analyst in Singapore, said in an e-mailed reply to questions on Friday. “However, easier monetary policy risks undermining macroeconomic stability, particularly amid already rapid credit growth,” Shah said. “A continued acceleration in credit growth could also pose some risks to the banking sector by eroding banks’ capital buffers.” The country’s central bank will hold interest rates throughout the year after an unexpected cut last year, analysts in a Bloomberg survey said, in contrast to others in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia where policymakers tightened policy last week.
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
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
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
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer