CHINA
CPI jumps on pork prices
Consumer inflation last month rose to a two-year high, official data showed yesterday, with a surge in pork prices pushing up the cost of food. The consumer price index (CPI), a key gauge of retail inflation, grew less than expected at 2.7 percent from a year earlier, National Bureau of Statistics data showed. The CPI rose slightly “due to an increase in prices of pork, fresh vegetables and other food, as well as seasonal factors,” senior bureau statistician Dong Lijuan (董莉娟) said in a statement. Food prices were up 6.3 percent, with pork spiking 20.2 percent last month, she added.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
UK firms cannot fill posts
British finance firms are struggling with the worst job vacancy rates on record, underlining a skills shortage caused by the digitization of banking, investing and insurance. The industry had more than five vacancies unfilled for every 100 jobs between April and June, data compiled by the British Office for National Statistics showed. That is the highest since records began in 2001, and puts the sector behind only the hospitality and tech industries. The data underlines the continuing tightness of the jobs market even at a time of wider economic stress.
FOOD DELIVERY
Deliveroo losses spike
Deliveroo, the international delivery food app, yesterday announced a big increase in losses as investment costs ate into rising revenues, saying it planned to exit its struggling Netherlands market. Loss after tax jumped 41 percent to ￡153.8 million (US$186.1 million) compared with the first six months of last year, the British group said in a statement. Revenue grew 12 percent to ￡1 billion, despite the easing COVID-19 curbs and controversy over the treatment of its riders. Deliveroo said the outlook was clouded by strong inflation and the war in Ukraine.
TOURISM
TUI bookings improve
TUI, the world’s largest tourism operator, yesterday said booking levels were closing on pre-COVID-19 levels as it reduced its losses for the quarter. Between April and June, the travel group made a net loss of 356.7 million euros (US$364.7 million), after losing 934.8 million euros in the same period last year. About 5.1 million people traveled with TUI in the quarter, an 84 percent increase on last year. At the same time, the group’s revenues climbed to 4.43 billion euros, “almost seven times more” than last year. TUI said that it expects a “strong” European travel summer on the back of rising demand.
PHILIPPINES
Telecoms sue newcomer
The Philippines’ two biggest telecoms, PLDT Inc and Globe Telecom Inc, have separately accused new entrant DITO Telecommunity Corp of “fraudulent” calls made through its network, heightening a public disagreement. Globe on Tuesday said that it has asked the telecommunications regulator to require DITO to pay 622 million pesos (US$11.2 million) in penalties over alleged contraventions of interconnect rules. PLDT unit Smart Communications said that DITO “has failed to prevent its network from being misused for fraud.” Smart said it has incurred “huge monetary losses” as DITO SIM cards were supposedly “masking international calls as domestic.” DITO earlier this week filed complaints against Globe and Smart before the antitrust body for “possible anti-competitive practice in their interconnection agreements.”
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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