CHINA
PBOC injects less cash
The government injected the least amount of medium-term cash into the banking system since November last year, a sign that policymakers are watching the effects of past easing steps as the nation’s economic recovery appears to be on track. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) offered 170 billion yuan (US$24.74 billion) of funds to banks through the medium-term lending facility. That resulted in a 20 billion yuan net injection this month, the smallest since November. It also left the interest rate unchanged at 2.75 percent, the eighth month for it to stand pat, as expected by a majority of economists and analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
UNITED KINGDOM
BOE reviews deposit scheme
The Bank of England (BOE) is considering an overhaul of its deposit guarantee scheme after the recent global banking crisis, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the central bank’s plans. Reforms under consideration include raising the amount covered for businesses from the current ￡85,000 (US$105,250) limit, as well as forcing banks to pre-fund the system to a greater extent to speed up payouts, the newspaper reported. The report did not have details on what the new limit could be. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corp guarantees deposits up to US$250,000.
INDIA
Adviser pushes back on ESG
The country needs to resist efforts by some western ratings companies to push environmental, social and governance (ESG) norms on emerging markets even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is committed to zero emissions by 2070, a key economic adviser said. “The issue is not so much about the need for some norms, but about who will be monitoring these targets,” Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of Modi’s economic advisory council said in an interview. “The existing credit rating ones already have serious biases and failures. Allowing the emergence of a new bunch of exclusively western agencies to monitor ESG targets is problematic.”
SINGAPORE
Home sales rise
Home sales rose to a six-month high last month as appetite for homes remained strong. Purchases of new private apartments increased to 492 units last month, according to figures released yesterday by the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That is the third month of gains following the plunge to a 14-year-low in December last year when a lack of project launches held back buyers. “The general market view is still quite positive,” OrangeTee & Tie Pte (橙易產業) senior vice president of research and analytics Christine Sun (孫燕清) said. The lack of supply compared to demand will continue to support the market, Sun added.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault reviews EV pricing
French automaker Renault SA is reviewing its pricing policies of electric vehicles (EV0 worldwide to ensure it stays competitive after a wave of price cuts by US rival Tesla Inc, a top executive said yesterday. After slashing prices several times in the US, Tesla on Friday cut prices in Europe — including on Renault’s home turf of France — as well as Israel and Singapore, expanding a global discount drive it began in China in January. “We will analyze country by country, market by market, which level of competitiveness we need to have to stay in the game,” Renault chief executive Fabrice Cambolive said.
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
Chinese entrepreneur Frank Gao used to spend long hours running his social media accounts but now outsources the chore to artificial intelligence (AI) agent tool OpenClaw, which is taking China by storm despite official warnings over cybersecurity. OpenClaw, created in November by an Austrian coder, differs from bots such as ChatGPT because it can execute real-life tasks such as sending e-mails, organizing files or even booking flight tickets. “Since January, I’ve spent hours on the lobster every day,” Gao said in an interview, referring to OpenClaw’s red crustacean mascot. “We’re family.” After downloading OpenClaw, users connect it to artificial intelligence models of their
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
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