EUROPE
Digital euro deemed safe
Europeans expect the European Central Bank’s (ECB) proposed digital euro to be private, safe and cheap, an ECB survey showed yesterday. The central bank is working on creating an electronic form of cash to complement banknotes and coins. The poll showed that privacy when making payments was foremost priority for eurozone residents and financial industry professionals. “What the respondents want most from a digital euro is privacy (43 percent), security (18 percent), usability across the euro area (11 percent), the absence of additional costs (9 percent) and offline use (8 percent),” the ECB said.
ECONOMY
IMF warns of COVID-19 risk
Delays in COVID-19 vaccinations are the top risk facing the global economy, and getting people in poor countries inoculated should be a top priority, the IMF said on Tuesday. “The fact that there is this big gap in access to vaccinations is a big problem,” IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said during a virtual conference organized by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Gopinath called on rich countries to help poor nations access doses, saying that achieving widespread vaccinations should be “the absolute number one priority.” The IMF last week unveiled an updated global economic outlook that predicted the global economy would expand 6 percent this year and 4.4 percent next year.
TECHNOLOGY
Dyson to expand workforce
British company Dyson Ltd plans to hire 450 people globally, with more than half the recruits in its headquarters in Singapore. The firm best known for its vacuum cleaners and hand dryers would add 250 engineers in the city-state, doubling its existing software and electronics engineering teams, Dyson said in a statement. It would also hire 200 new science and research roles at its Malmesbury and Hullavington innovation campuses in the UK. The hirings are a part of the company’s ￡2.75 billion (US$3.79 billion), five-year investment plan in machine learning, robotics and other technologies.
SOFTWARE
SAP shares at 6-month high
Shares of SAP SE yesterday hit a six-month high in early trading after the company released preliminary first-quarter results that showed that customers are beginning to pick up information technology spending after cutting back during the COVID-19 pandemic. The German software firm on Tuesday reported a 7 percent rise in first-quarter cloud revenue and raised the lower end of its full-year forecast for cloud sales. Adjusted cloud revenue was 2.15 billion euros (US$2.57 billion) last quarter. SAP shares rose 3.8 percent to 116.46 euros in Frankfurt trading at 9:41am, their highest level since October last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple event fans speculation
Apple Inc on Tuesday announced that it would hold a special event on Tuesday next week, with many expecting the tech giant to launch new iPad Pro models and other products ahead of its annual developers’ conference in June. Apple’s cryptic invitation for the media did not give much away, only reading: “Spring Loaded.” The event would be livestreamed on the company’s Web site from its campus in Cupertino, California, it added. Earlier, Apple’s virtual assistant Siri prematurely revealed the iPhone maker’s plan to hold the event.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
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