ITALY
Recession spoils targets
Economic contraction at the end of last year was less than estimated, but the economy still slipped into a recession that has cast doubts on Rome’s growth targets. The economy shrank 0.1 percent in the three months through December last year, less than the 0.2 percent drop in an initial reading. That was still the second consecutive quarterly decline, meaning it was the only nation in the eurozone slipping into a technical recession in the period. Inventories were the only component that had a negative contribution on the quarterly change in GDP. Consumption increased by 0.1 percent as exports rose 1.3 percent, the National Institute of Statistics said. GDP was unchanged from the same quarter in 2017.
EGYPT
Private activity slows further
Private-sector business activity slowed last month to its lowest level since September 2017, as companies struggled with liquidity and new orders continued to fall, an Emirates NBD-Markit survey showed. The purchasing managers index for the non-oil private sector fell for the sixth consecutive month, to 48.2 from 48.5 in January. The drop was linked to cash-flow issues, poor weather conditions and weak sales, companies said. Businesses had been squeezed by a 16.75 percent benchmark rate that the central bank had kept steady for almost a year, but the bank last month cut rates by 100 basis points — a reduction that could help stimulate lending. Changes in tax policy and declining yields on local bonds could also spur a new focus on private-sector growth.
MALAYSIA
Legoland sale considered
Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd is weighing a sale of Legoland Malaysia Resort, people with knowledge of the matter said. The theme park could be valued at about 1 billion ringgit (US$245.3 million) including debt, the people said. Khazanah is considering the potential divestment as part of its review of non-core assets, the people said. No final decisions have been made, and Khazanah could decide to keep the property, they added.
INVESTMENT
Gold dips as sentiment rises
Investors are pulling cash from the world’s largest gold exchange-traded fund at the fastest pace in more than a year, as easing trade tensions push buyers out of safe-haven assets. The US$33 billion SPDR Gold Shares fund (GLD) on Friday last week saw a net withdrawal of US$496 million, the most in a single day since February last year. That pushed the five-day total to about US$720 million, marking the fourth straight week of outflows. Investors are weighing the prospect of a trade deal, boosting risk appetite and dimming the appeal of havens. Commerzbank AG analysts in a research note attributed flows out of GLD and a dip in bullion prices below US$1,300 an ounce (31.1g) to “good sentiment.”
CHINA
Oil firm spinoff expected
The nation announced it would form a national oil and pipeline company, the first public acknowledgment of a massive energy industry overhaul planned since at least 2014. Beijing has planned to spin off into a new company some of the 112,000km of oil, gas and fuel pipelines held by state energy giants, led by China National Petroleum Corp (中國石油天然氣). The formation of a new company would help reform the energy sector by separating transmission and sales businesses, and removing impediments to oil and gas exploration.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
NO SHORTCUTS: Asked about Elon Musk’s Terafab initiative, TSMC CEO C.C. Wei said it takes two to three years to build a fab and another one to two to ramp it up Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its revenue growth forecast for this year to above 30 percent, up from the 25 percent it estimated three months earlier, citing extremely robust artificial intelligence (AI)-related chip demand. “Our customers and customers’ customers, who are mainly cloud service providers, continue to send us very positive signals and outlook,” TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at an earnings conference. The company also hiked its capital expenditure for this year toward the higher end of its forecast, or US$56 billion, as it aims to step up advanced chip capacity expansions, such as
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