SOUTH KOREA
Higher inflation forecast
The Bank of Korea said it expects inflation this year to come in above its upward revision of just a week ago, as consumer price gains exceeded all estimates last month, accelerating to the fastest pace since 2011. Consumer prices rose 3.7 percent from a year earlier, the statistics office said yesterday. In a statement after the release, the central bank said that this year’s inflation might be “somewhat” higher than the 2.3 percent it predicted on Thursday last week. Price gains would gradually cool, as oil prices ease and the government’s fuel tax cut feeds through to consumers, it said. However, demand pressures and supply bottlenecks would keep inflation above target for a considerable time, the central bank said.
TURKEY
Finance minister replaced
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday replaced the country’s finance minister after weeks of economic turmoil in which inflation has soared while the lira plummeted to record lows. A presidential decree issued near midnight said that Erdogan had accepted the resignation of minister of treasury and finance Lutfi Elvan and appointed his deputy, Nureddin Nebati, as the new finance minister. On Wednesday, the central bank intervened in markets to prop up the nosediving lira, which has lost nearly 30 percent in value against the US dollar in just a month.
RUSSIA
Economy grows 4.6 percent
GDP increased 4.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, putting the economy on track to meet the expectations of government officials and the World Bank, the statistics service said on Wednesday. After shrinking by 3 percent last year, its sharpest contraction in 11 years, the economy is on track to expand by more than 4 percent this year, according to President Vladimir Putin, the central bank and the ministry of economic development. They have predicted growth of between 4 and 4.7 percent this year. The World Bank on Wednesday said that the economy is set to grow by 4.3 percent this year.
EQUITIES
Cloud Village slips at IPO
Shares of the music streaming arm of Chinese gaming giant NetEase Inc (網易) yesterday dropped in their trading debut in Hong Kong, following an initial public offering (IPO) that priced shares at the mid-point of a marketed range. Cloud Village Inc (雲音樂) shares fell 2.5 percent to close at HK$199.90. They were sold at HK$205 each, within a range that went from HK$190 to HK$220. It raised US$422 million in the IPO. The company began trading in the Asian financial hub after having put the listing on hold in August, delaying it just days after it began gauging investor demand.
TECHNOLOGY
Uber, WhatsApp team up
Uber Technologies Inc and Meta Platforms Inc’s WhatsApp have rolled out ride booking via the messenger service in India, a first for the US ride-hailing giant and an expansion of WhatsApp’s capabilities in the country. The partnership allows access to Uber’s mobility services by sending a message to a WhatsApp chatbot serving the northern city of Lucknow. An expansion to more locations is planned in the near future, Uber said in a statement. It follows closely on the heels of WhatsApp rolling out in-app grocery shopping on JioMart, the digital outlet for Reliance Retail Ltd.
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],”