Fri, Jul 01, 2022 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  SEMICONDUCTORS

  Chip stash hints at slowdown

  South Korea’s chip stockpiles increased by the most in more than four years, suggesting a slowdown in demand for memory chips used in electronics worldwide. The nationwide inventory jumped 53.4 percent in May from a year earlier, Statistics Korea said yesterday. An earlier 54.1 percent gain in March 2018 coincided with a slowdown in revenue growth in the chip industry. Semiconductor stockpiles have been rising on a year-on-year basis since October last year. South Korea is the world’s largest producer of memory chips, which go into everything from smartphones to laptops to cars. The mounting stockpiles come amid growing concerns over a possible global recession driven by inflationary pressure, rising interest rates, deteriorating consumer confidence and Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. Overall industrial production showed a recovery from April’s fall as lockdowns in China eased. Factory output rose 7.3 percent in May from a year earlier, beating a 4 percent forecast by economists.

  BREWERIES

  Kirin sells Myanmar stakes

  Japanese drinks company Kirin Holdings plans to sell its Myanmar business to its military-linked local partner, it said yesterday, exiting the Southeast Asian country more than a year after the military toppled an elected government. Kirin is to sell its 51 percent stake in the Myanmar Brewery Ltd joint venture to partner Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co Ltd for ￥22.4 billion (US$164 million), it said in a statement. Kirin executives initially said they wanted to remain in the market to some degree, but after a year of negotiations, the two sides agreed in February to terminate the venture. Rights group Justice for Myanmar criticized the sale as a “windfall for the Myanmar military” that would ensure the junta a steady stream of revenue.

  UNITED KINGDOM

  Historic deficit for GDP

  The current account deficit in the first quarter ballooned to ￡51.7 billion (US$62.6 billion) or 8.3 percent of GDP, the biggest shortfall by that measure in records going back to 1955, Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed yesterday. The figures were subject to more uncertainty than usual due to the effects of post-Brexit data collection changes on trade in goods imports and foreign direct investment, the ONS said. Economists had expected a deficit of just under ￡40 billion. The ONS also said GDP in the world’s fifth-biggest economy increased by 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of last year, when the public had yet to feel the effects of a rise in inflation.

  EUROZONE

  Economic headwinds hit

  French inflation climbed further from May to a record high of 6.5 percent, official preliminary figures showed yesterday, adding headwinds to the eurozone’s second-largest economy. The French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies said prices last month rose by 0.8 percent from May, and 12-month preliminary inflation stood at 6.5 percent. Analysts said in a poll that preliminary annualized inflation last month would reach 6.3 percent. Food and energy prices rose sharply due to the war in Ukraine, the institute said. Elsewhere within the eurozone, German inflation for last month unexpectedly eased to 8.2 percent from 8.7 percent in May, while Spanish 12-month inflation rose to 10.2 percent, marking the first time it had surpassed 10 percent since April 1985.
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