ECONOMY
Moody’s sees G20 recession
The world’s 20 most industrialized nations are likely to suffer a recession this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial ratings agency Moody’s said on Wednesday. The G20’s overall GDP would contract by 0.5 percent, with the US economy shrinking by 2 percent and the eurozone by 2.2 percent, Moody’s said. China could see economic activity expand 3.3 percent, but that would still be well below average for the world’s second-biggest economy, it said.
BANKING
India mulls shutdowns
India’s central bank and major lenders are considering shutting down most branches across the nation to prevent tens of thousands of employees from getting infected with the coronavirus, four sources familiar with the plan said. Under the plan, in major cities there would likely be only one bank open every 5km, the sources said, declining to be identified as it has not yet been publicly disclosed. In the countryside, banks would likely operate on alternate days and redeploy staff to only allow disbursal of welfare cash to the poor, the sources said.
HOUSING
UK sales might fall 60%
UK house sales are set to plunge 60 percent in the next three months as the pandemic batters the economy. The slump in the second quarter, which is usually among the most active sales periods, would be followed by a further decline in the three months through September, a report released yesterday by real-estate portal Zoopla said. The virus is already weighing on deals, with the number of homes placed under offer in the seven days through Sunday down 15 percent from the previous week, Zoopla data showed.
GREECE
GDP to shrink 1% to 3%
The government expects the economy to contract by 1 to 3 percent due to COVID-19, which has brought economic activity to a virtual standstill, Minister of Finance Christos Staikouras said yesterday. The impact is likely to be milder than other eurozone countries, Staikouras said, but added that any estimates were tempered by how long the crisis would last. A recovery in economic activity next year is forecast to be sharp, he told Skai TV.
AUTOS
Lockdowns to hit sales
Vehicle sales in US states that implemented lockdown orders to curb the spread of COVID-19 are forecast to drop 80 percent or more, analysts said on Wednesday. Retail sales through the week that ended on Sunday declined 22 percent nationwide on a yearly basis and as much as 40 percent in some cities on the west coast, research firm J.D. Power said, citing data from dealership stores across the nation. Last week’s data did not yet fully account for various US states passing so-called shelter-in-place orders at the end of last week.
FINANCE
IMF offers US$50bn aid
The IMF is to provide US$50 billion in emergency facilities to low-income and emerging-market countries to mitigate the economic shocks of COVID-19, including US$10 billion in concessional loans.“Our member countries need us more than ever,” the IMF said on Wednesday. “Discussions between IMF teams and country officials are advancing quickly.” The fund has received requests for emergency financing from almost 20 countries and expects 10 more nations to seek its help, it said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to