CHINA
Factory gate prices rise
Factory gate prices last month rose at their fastest annual pace since July 2018, official data showed yesterday, as growth in the world’s second-largest economy continued to gather momentum. The producer price index rose 4.4 percent in annual terms, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. This compared with a 1.7 percent rise in February. The consumer price index rose 0.4 percent from a year earlier last month, compared with a 0.2 percent decline in February, the bureau said in a separate statement.
GERMANY
Industrial production falls
Industrial production dropped for the second month in a row in February after eight months of gains as the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite, official data showed yesterday. Federal statistics agency Destatis said that industrial output declined 1.6 percent in February after a 2 percent fall the previous month, according to corrected data.
UNITED KINGDOM
House prices jump
House prices rose at the strongest pace in six months as buyers eyed a path out of lockdowns and the government extended a temporary tax break on purchases, mortgage lender Halifax said. The 1.1 percent increase followed no change in February and brought the annual pace of house price inflation to 6.5 percent. The average cost of a home rose to ￡254,606 (US$349,000). Last month, the Exchequer extended a holiday on stamp duty that was due to expire, leaving buyers eager to complete before the deadline.
FRANCE
Gradual repair planned
France would only gradually repair the damage to its public finances from the COVID-19 pandemic, avoiding austerity measures that would hurt economic growth, a long-term fiscal plan published late on Thursday showed. The budget deficit would not fall below 3 percent of GDP until 2027, the Ministry of Finance said. While progress could have been faster, targeting a drop below 3 percent in 2025, that would have involved major spending cuts and tax increases, an official at the ministry said.
FINTECH
Linklogis rises on debut
Linklogis Inc’s (聯易融科技) shares rose on its debut in Hong Kong, with the Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊)-backed company snapping a recent run of disappointing listings in the territory. Shares of the Shenzhen-based fintech firm closed 9.9 percent higher. Linklogis had priced its US$1.02 billion initial public offering near the midpoint of an indicative range at HK$17.58 per share, while the retail portion of its offering was 98.5 times subscribed by local investors. The firm offers digital services to help facilitate supply chain finance transactions in China.
TELECOMS
PCCW explores unit sale
PCCW Ltd (電訊盈科), a Hong Kong telecommunications, media and technology conglomerate controlled by billionaire Richard Li (李澤楷), is exploring a sale of its information technology and data centers unit, people familiar with the matter said. PCCW is working with a financial adviser as it evaluates a possible transaction that could value PCCW Solutions Ltd (電訊盈科企業方案) at more than US$1 billion, the people said. Prospective suitors including other telecom companies and private equity firms have expressed interest in acquiring all or part of the business, the people said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
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