INDONESIA
Rate increases 50 points
Indonesia’s central bank increased borrowing costs by 50 basis points for a second straight meeting, as authorities sought to front-load their actions to arrest a slump in the rupiah and check inflation. The bank raised its seven-day reverse repurchase rate to 4.75 percent yesterday. “It’s a front-loaded, pre-emptive and forward-looking step to lower inflation expectations that are too high or overshooting,” Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo said. The decision is aimed at returning core inflation — the bank’s preferred gauge — to the 2 to 4 percent target corridor in the first half of next year, compared with the third quarter time line seen earlier.
UNITED STATES
Economy causing pessimism
Economic prospects are becoming “more pessimistic” in the US on growing worries of weaker demand, the US Federal Reserve said in a report on Wednesday, citing heightened inflation and rising interest rates. The Fed’s latest “beige book” survey of economic conditions said that economic activity has been sluggish in many areas in the US, with “slowing or weak demand” due to higher interest rates, inflation and supply disruptions. The central bank has raised the benchmark lending rate five times this year for a total of 3 percentage points. “Recession fears” have also spread in several districts, the report said. “Looking ahead, expectations were for price increases to generally moderate,” it said.
LATIN AMERICA
Economy to peak this year
Economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to reach 3.2 percent this year, higher than expected, but drop by more than half next year, a UN body said on Wednesday. This year’s figure was better than the 2.7 percent forecast by the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in August, and up from 1.8 percent predicted in April. However, next year’s growth is to slow to 1.4 percent in “an unfavorable international context,” with “forecasts for a deceleration in both global growth and trade, higher interest rates, and less global liquidity,” it said in a statement.
TECHNOLOGY
Demand boosts IBM sales
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) reported better-than-expected sales and affirmed its cash flow forecast in a sign that demand for software, mainframe computers and hybrid cloud services remains steady. Sales rose 6.5 percent to US$14.1 billion in the third quarter, the New York-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. IBM expects full-year revenue growth to exceed the company’s previous mid-single digit guidance, while free cash flow would hit its estimate of US$10 billion. Software sales jumped 7.5 percent to US$5.8 billion, while consulting gained 5.4 percent to US$4.7 billion.
LUXURY GOODS
Hermes China sales surge
Hermes International sales surged as luxury shoppers in China returned to stores after COVID-19 restrictions eased to snap up its Birkin and Kelly handbags. Revenue rose 24 percent to 3.1 billion euros (US$3.03 billion) in the third quarter, excluding currency swings, topping analysts’ estimates, Hermes said yesterday. The report offers more evidence that producers of luxury goods remain largely immune to a spending squeeze that has hurt other retailers and consumer-goods companies as a result of a crisis in the cost of living. “We have no signs of slowdown in any of our markets,” chief financial officer Eric du Halgouet said.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Taiwan’s property market is entering a freeze, with mortgage activity across the nation’s six largest cities plummeting in the first quarter, H&B Realty Co (住商不動產) said yesterday, citing mounting pressure on housing demand amid tighter lending rules and regulatory curbs. Mortgage applications in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung totaled 28,078 from January to March, a sharp 36.3 percent decline from 44,082 in the same period last year, the nation’s largest real-estate brokerage by franchise said, citing data from the Joint Credit Information Center (JCIC, 聯徵中心). “The simultaneous decline across all six cities reflects just how drastically the market
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
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