AUTOMAKERS
Nissan not opposed to merger
Nissan Motor Co yesterday told Renault SA that it was not opposed to its partner’s potential US$35 billion merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) NV, the Nikkei Shimbun said, citing an unnamed Nissan source. The leaders of Nissan, Renault and junior partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp gathered at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama for a scheduled meeting that was overshadowed by FCA’s proposal on Monday for a merger-of-equals with Renault. The plan raises difficult questions about how Nissan would fit into a radically changed alliance.
SWEDEN
GDP beats estimates
The economy expanded three times faster than estimated at the start of the year, helped by a rise in exports even as households cut back on spending and investments declined. GDP grew 0.6 percent in the first quarter and 2.1 percent from a year earlier, Statistics Sweden said yesterday. Economists had predicted an expansion of 0.2 percent and 1.7 percent respectively. The US$500 billion economy was rescued by exports, although most other key components dropped, including consumer spending and investments.
VENEZUELA
Inflation hits 130,060%
The central bank on Tuesday published key economic data for the first time since 2015, reporting figures on GDP, external accounts and inflation. Inflation spiraled out of control to 130,060 percent last year and to 862.6 percent in 2017, while the economy contracted 22.5 percent during the third quarter of last year from same period in 2017, the bank said in a report. In January, monthly inflation was 196.6 percent, the fastest pace in the past few years, before easing to 114.4 percent in February, 34.8 percent in March and 33.8 percent last month, the data showed.
GERMANY
Jobless rate increases
The unemployment rate unexpectedly rose for the first time in almost two years as an economic slowdown finally started to take a toll on the labor market. The number of people out of work unexpectedly climbed by 60,000 this month, compared with economists’ forecasts for a decline of 8,000. The jobless rate also rose, to 5 percent from a record low of 4.9 percent. The Federal Labor Agency said about two-thirds of the increase was due to reclassification of some people in the statistics.
MEDIA
Mediaset buys German stake
Italian television group Mediaset SpA yesterday said it has acquired 9.6 percent of German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media as it seeks European expansion to counter the rise of global streaming giants such as Netflix Inc. Mediaset, which is owned by the family of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is to become the largest shareholder in the German channel, which also has a presence in Austria and Switzerland.
REAL ESTATE
London home prices reduced
London homebuyers are getting the biggest discounts in at least six years, the property-search Web site Zoopla said in a report yesterday. The average reduction on a home in 13 inner London boroughs jumped to 7.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, up from 7 percent a year earlier, the report said. The residential real estate market in the UK capital has been stung in the past few years by the introduction of new taxes and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day