UNITED STATES
Fed reports slowing growth
Supply bottlenecks and labor shortages have slowed economic growth and contributed to a sharp rise in prices, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. The constraints and shortage of goods caused “significantly elevated prices” in most parts of the country, the Fed said in its “beige book” report on economic conditions, which noted rising uncertainty about the outlook. While economic activity increased at a “modest to moderate” rate over the past several weeks, in much of the country “the pace of growth slowed,” it said, adding that this was due to “supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and uncertainty around the Delta variant” of SARS-CoV-2.
THAILAND
Property lending rules eased
The central bank temporarily suspended home mortgage lending limits to revive the sluggish property market and COVID-19 pandemic-hit economy, fueling a rally in shares of real-estate developers. Home buyers can now take loans equivalent to 100 percent of the property’s value until the end of next year, the Bank of Thailand said yesterday. That is up from a previously required loan-to-value range of 70 to 90 percent, with that ceiling dependent on the type and number of houses purchased. The mortgage move is aimed at boosting the property sector and related businesses, which account for 9.8 percent of the economy and employ 2.8 million people, Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Roong Mallikamas told a news briefing.
NEW ZEALAND
Trade deal with UK inked
The South Pacific nation has become the second country to secure a post-Brexit free-trade agreement with the UK, in a deal that aims to eliminate all tariffs on exports and eventually boost the economy by almost NZ$1 billion (US$718 million). The government said that the UK would remove most tariffs on exports to the country — including wine, honey, onions, some dairy products and most industrial products — as soon as the agreement comes into force. However, tariffs on exports including butter, cheese, beef and sheep meat, seasonable apples and some fish would slowly be removed over the next 15 years.
MANUFACTURING
ABB downgrades forecast
Swiss engineering group ABB Ltd yesterday downgraded its sales expectations for this year as global shortages in semiconductors weighed on its business. ABB now expects revenue growth of 6 to 8 percent, adjusting for currency effects and any acquisitions or mergers, the company said as it posted third-quarter results. In the three months to last month, orders jumped by 29 percent compared with the same period last year, to close to US$7.9 billion, but sales increased by 7 percent to US$7 billion, below expectations.
TRANSPORT
Flixbus to acquire Greyhound
Germany’s Flixbus DACH GmbH yesterday announced that it would acquire US long-distance bus operator Greyhound Lines Inc, expanding its low-cost coach offering in North America. Flixbus would pay US$172 million to FirstGroup, the British owner of Greyhound, which serves 2,400 destinations in North America, carrying almost 16 million passengers a year. Founded in 2013, Flixbus has grown into Germany’s most popular long-distance bus service, operating in 36 countries besides the US. Founded in 1914, Greyhound Lines is the US’ biggest intercity bus service.
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
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],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy