INDIA
Central bank keeps rates
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday kept interest rates on hold, defying expectations of a sixth consecutive cut this year to jumpstart the economy after quarterly growth plunged to its lowest level since 2013. The bank said the benchmark repo rate — the level at which it lends to commercial banks — would remain unchanged at 5.15 percent, a nine-year low. However, it slashed its annual growth forecast to 5 percent from 6.1 percent, as consumer demand and manufacturing activity contracts. The economy grew at its slowest pace in more than six years in the July-to-September period, dropping to 4.5 percent from 7 percent a year ago.
CANADA
Central bank maintains rates
The Bank of Canada on Wednesday maintained its key lending rate at 1.75 percent, saying it is cautiously optimistic that global growth is set to rebound and recession fears are “waning.” “There is nascent evidence that the global economy is stabilizing,” the bank said in a statement, adding that growth was “expected to edge higher over the next couple of years.” Financial markets have been bolstered by “waning recession concerns,” despite being “buffeted by news on the trade front,” it said. The economy slowed in the third quarter to 1.3 percent as exports fell.
GERMANY
New orders slip October
New orders slid in October after a September boost, official data showed yesterday, highlighting that manufacturing in Europe’s largest economy remains plagued by trade disputes and a global growth slowdown. New contracts fell 0.4 percent month-on-month in October, federal statistics authority Destatis said in seasonally adjusted figures. When counting out volatile large orders for items like aircraft, the fall was less steep, at 1.4 percent month-on-month. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in a statement underlined net growth in new business of 1 percent in September-October over July-August.
FINANCE
SMFG Indonesia expanding
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG) wants to add securities, credit card and consumer finance operations to its commercial banking presence in Indonesia, SMFG president Jun Ohta said yesterday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The new services are part of plans to create a “financial conglomerate” in the Southeast Asian nation, Ohta said. SMFG owns Jakarta-based PT Bank BTPN, which it bought in 2013. Overseas countries provide the “engine for growth” for SMFG since it is hard to boost top-line revenue in Japan, Ohta said.
AUTOMAKERS
Italy questions FCA deal
Italian tax authorities believe that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) underestimated the value of its US business by 5.1 billion euros (US$5.65 billion) following Fiat’s phased acquisition of Chrysler, according to a company filing and a source close to the matter. The audit, which concerns transactions dating back to 2014, could result in FCA having to pay back taxes for US$1.5 billion, the source added. FCA said in its third-quarter report that the tax authorities had issued to the company a final audit report in October “which, if confirmed in the final audit assessment, could result in a material proposed tax adjustment related to the October 12, 2014, merger of Fiat SpA into FCA NV.”
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
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