South Korean consumer prices last month failed to rise despite government cash handouts to spur spending, another sign of how hard the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the economy.
Consumer prices were unchanged from a year earlier, data released yesterday by the government statistics office showed. Economists had expected a 0.2 percent decline.
Any boost to consumer sentiment from the government’s aid to households might have been muted by the emergence last month of new virus clusters that have made people cautious about venturing out. Still, the stimulus likely helped South Korea avoid a second consecutive month of negative core inflation.
“Fiscal policy lent support,” Standard Chartered Bank Korea economist Park Chong-hoon said. “That doesn’t mean the economy is back on track, but the cash handouts at least kept deflationary pressures from deepening.”
South Korea has struggled with low inflation for several years, but managed to avoid any prolonged spell of falling prices.
That could change if the pandemic drags on as the boost from the government’s cash aid to households weakens. The handouts expire at the end of next month.
The data might put pressure on the Bank of Korea (BOK) to do more.
BOK Governor Lee Ju-yeol last month said that he expects consumer prices to stay at about 0 percent for the time being.
For the full year, the central bank forecasts inflation slowing to 0.3 percent and gross domestic output shrinking 0.2 percent.
The deteriorating job market is likely to weigh on prices. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in the past few months have been shed, especially in retail and other service businesses.
The government has pledged tens of trillions of won to create employment in industries such as technology and renewable energy.
The emergence of new virus clusters might have cast a chill on shoppers. South Korea flattened its infection curve months ago, but dozens of new cases are now being reported daily.
The government is tweaking its social distancing rules to try to stem new waves while keeping the economy open. Rebounds in other major economies as lockdowns ease would support inflation in trade-reliant South Korea.
Consumer prices last month rose 0.2 percent over the previous month. Core inflation rose by 0.6 percent from a year earlier.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”