JAPAN
Record budget approved
The Cabinet yesterday approved a record initial budget for next fiscal year, piling more borrowing onto the nation’s massive debt load. For the year starting in April, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet signed off on ￥114.4 trillion (US$863 billion) in overall spending, including a jump in defense spending, the Ministry of Finance said. The amount represents a 6.3 percent increase from the previous year’s initial budget. Next year’s spending might still increase as the year progresses given a tendency for the government to issue extra budgets. Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki said that the government was still looking to balance its budget outside debt servicing in the fiscal year starting in April 2025, and played down concerns over the defense spending.
CONSUMER GOODS
Inflation to persist: Nestle
Nestle SA chief financial officer Francois-Xavier Roger foresees a challenging six months before inflation starts to ease in the second half of next year. “We are likely going to go into a recession — we know that the next six months are probably going to be complicated and difficult,” he said in an interview, adding that it would trigger a slowdown in consumption. Consumer goods groups like Nestle have been grappling with sharply higher input costs this year. Many have pushed through record-price hikes, denting demand for their products. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, expects to spend 1 billion Swiss francs (US$1.08 billion) on investments such as more sustainable packaging and carbon reduction next year, an increase of almost SF800 million this year and SF500 million last year. Environmental, social, and governance reporting should soon become mandatory, Roger said.
SINGAPORE
Core inflation up 5.1%
Core inflation last month rose at the same pace as the prior month, giving some room for policymakers to focus more on mounting pressures to economic growth. The gauge, which excludes private transport and accommodation and is closely watched by the central bank, increased 5.1 percent from a year earlier for a second straight month, a joint statement yesterday from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Trade and Industry showed. That compares with a 5 percent median forecast in the Bloomberg survey and follows the October reading that had marked the first easing in eight months. Food items and eating out were costlier than the overall core gauge, while items like household durables and healthcare helped hold back an acceleration.
SOFTWARE
Microsoft defends merger
Microsoft Corp on Thursday said that its US$69 billion bid to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard would benefit gamers and gaming companies alike. The company made the argument in a filing aimed at convincing a judge at the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to allow the deal to proceed, after the commission said the merger would hamper competition in the gaming industry. In a complaint on Dec. 8, the FTC said its concern was that Activision’s popular games would potentially stop being offered on devices that rival Microsoft’s Xbox. It set a hearing before an administrative law judge for August next year. “The acquisition of a single game by the third-place console manufacturer cannot upend a highly competitive industry. That is particularly so when the manufacturer has made clear it will not withhold the game,” Microsoft said in Thursday’s filing.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
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