SINGAPORE
Inflation nears decade high
Core inflation accelerated for a seventh month to the fastest in almost a decade amid expectations that the central bank would in April again tighten its monetary policy. The central bank’s core consumer price index (CPI) — which excludes private transport and accommodation costs — advanced 2.4 percent last month, the most since September 2012. Food and energy drove the increases, along with slower-than-expected price declines for retail goods, the Monetary Authority and the Ministry of Trade and Industry yesterday said in a joint statement. They reiterated an outlook that core CPI could reach 3 percent in the middle of the year before easing.
FRANCE
Business climate rebounds
The business climate this month rebounded significantly after two months of decline linked to restrictions to slow the spread of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the national statistics agency INSEE said yesterday. The composite indicator for the major sectors of the economy rose by five points to 112, far above the long-term average, as well as the 105 points reported before the COVID-19 pandemic, INSEE said. The improvement came largely from the service industry and “is mainly linked to the optimism of business leaders concerning both the global outlook for the sector and their own activity for the next three months,” it added.
NEW ZEALAND
Cash rate raised to 1 percent
The central bank yesterday raised interest rates for a third straight meeting and signaled that it would need to increase further than previously expected to contain inflation, sending bond yields and the currency higher. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Monetary Policy Committee increased the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 1 percent. New forecasts published by the central bank showed the cash rate climbing to 2.5 percent over the next 12 months and peaking at about 3.25 percent at the end of next year. In November last year, the central bank forecast a peak of about 2.5 percent.
UKRAINE
IMF touts virtual mission
The IMF yesterday announced that it would start a virtual mission to the country, which, if successful, would pave the way for the country to get more aid to shore up its economy after its standoff with Russia escalated. IMF officials would start an online review of their program with the eastern European nation, the Washington-based lender said in a statement. At stake is US$700 million in disbursements the government in Kyiv expects to receive after the mission is completed. The IMF and Ukraine signed a US$5 billion loan program in 2020, extending it to June this year.
UNITED STATES
Real-estate prices surge
Home prices last year saw their biggest increase in at least 34 years, data released on Tuesday showed, as buyers spent the year snapping up homes and builders struggled to keep up. Home prices surged 18.8 percent last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller US National Home Price index, the biggest jump in its existence and much more than the 10.4 percent jump in 2020. The US real-estate market last year saw the most existing homes sold in 15 years, with sales topping 6 million even as supply sunk to an all-time low by the end of the year.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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