CHINA
Inflation eases to year-low
Consumer price inflation last month fell to its lowest level in a year, official data showed yesterday, as the economy emerged from strict COVID-19 pandemic controls and a Lunar New Year spending binge. The consumer price index rose 1 percent, down from a 2.1 percent annual rise in January, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The latest figure is the lowest since February last year. The bureau said the drop was caused by a decline in consumer demand after the holiday, as well as sufficient supply in the market. Meanwhile, the producer price index fell 1.4 percent from a 0.8 percent contraction in January, mainly in line with market expectations.
JAPAN
GDP growth downgraded
The economy grew at an annual pace of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, in a downgrade from an earlier 0.6 percent increase, showing how the world’s third-largest economy was barely eking out growth. The Cabinet Office’s revised figure for seasonally adjusted GDP for the last three months of last year showed flat quarterly growth, down from last month’s estimate of 0.2 percent growth. The annual rate showed what the growth would have been if the quarter-on-quarter rate continues for a year. Domestic demand shrank 0.3 percent, worse than the earlier release, showing a 0.2 percent decline, data released yesterday showed. Public demand was unchanged from the initial growth figure of 0.3 percent.
FRANCE
Growth of 0.3% targeted
The economy would grow by “a little” more than 0.3 percent this year, central bank Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau said yesterday, reiterating earlier remarks. “We will slightly raise or growth forecast,” Villeroy told Franceinfo radio. Villeroy earlier this year flagged the central bank would slightly raise its growth forecast for the economy for this year from a previous 0.3 percent forecast made in December last year. The Bank of France on Wednesday said the economy is set to grow about 0.1 percent in the first quarter of this year.
GERMANY
Transition funding mulled
The government is planning to provide the industry with a double-digit billion-euro amount to support the transition toward cleaner production, the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action said yesterday. Under the mechanism, called “Carbon Contracts for Difference,” which aim to shift the energy used in energy-intensive industries from fossil sources to renewables and hydrogen, companies can qualify for subsidies if they reduce carbon emissions in their production. Large, energy-intensive companies, medium-sized enterprises and small businesses are to benefit from the subsidies, the ministry said.
BANKING
Credit Suisse delays report
Credit Suisse Group AG delayed the publication of its annual report and compensation details for last year after US regulators raised last-minute technical queries on previous statements. The Zurich, Switzerland-based lender was due to publish the reports yesterday morning, but received a late call from the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday evening, the bank said in a statement. The commission had comments and questions about revisions Credit Suisse made to cash-flow statements related to the fiscal years 2019 and 2020, as well as related controls, the bank said.
INTERGRATION: Jensen Huang said that every Nvidia department and function of the company should be using AI, after reportedly saying staff were ‘insane’ not to Nvidia Corp is in a “unique” position in the market, despite facing intensifying competition, chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said during a brief visit to Taiwan yesterday amid a potentially growing challenge from Google for the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market. Huang told reporters that the AI market is “extremely large” and that while there is a lot of competition, Nvidia’s “condition is very strong and our position is very unique.” Huang, who arrived in Taipei on Thursday, was responding to questions about the possible threat posed by Google. According to a report in The Information on Tuesday, Meta has been in
Charming US President Donald Trump one week, angering China the next, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has had a busy start and is riding high in the polls, all on a few hours of sleep a night. However, the honeymoon might end soon for the Margaret Thatcher-admiring leader if a spat with China escalates further and she fails to keep inflation in check. “I believe Prime Minister Takaichi will surely do what she needs to do, so I trust her,” Kozue Otsuka, 50, told reporters at a festival this week for business owners seeking good fortune. While buying a lucky kumade rake featuring
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TECH TITANS: Amazon’s latest chip joins Google in competing for the 90 percent market share held by Nvidia, which claims it is ‘a generation ahead of the industry’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday launched its in-house-built Trainium3 artificial intelligence (AI) chip, marking a significant push to compete with Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market for AI computing power. The move intensifies competition in the AI chip market, where Nvidia dominates with an estimated 80 to 90 percent market share for products used in training large language models that power the likes of ChatGPT. Google last week caused tremors in the industry when it was reported that Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc would employ Google AI chips in data centers, signaling new competition for Nvidia. This followed the release last month of
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