NEW ZEALAND
Inflation at 32-year high
Inflation in the second quarter of this year rose to a 32-year high of 7.3 percent year-on-year, official figures released yesterday showed. The main drivers were rising fuel, food and housing costs, said Stats NZ, putting inflation at a level last seen in 1990. “Supply chain issues, labor costs, and higher demand have continued to push up the cost of building a new house,” said Jason Attewell of Stats NZ. Earlier this month, the central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to its highest level in six years and said further rises could follow.
INDIA
Growth forecast reduced
Morgan Stanley cut its forecast for the country’s annual growth to 7.2 percent for this year, as tighter financial conditions and a slowdown in global trade have pressured major economies around the world. The brokerage’s forecast, down from its previous projection of 7.6 percent, comes after the country’s economic growth slowed to the lowest in a year in the first three months of this year at 4.1 percent. The revised target is in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s view. For the next year, Morgan Stanley expects the annual GDP to touch 6.4 percent. The country’s annual consumer inflation, which touched multiyear highs in the past few months, eased marginally to 7.01 percent last month. The brokerage expects more respite ahead.
RETAIL
H&M to leave Russia
Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) is to start winding down its operations in Russia, having halted all sales in the country in March after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. The Stockholm-based company expects to book costs of 2 billion kronor (US$190 million) from the process, of which about 1 billion kronor would have a cash-flow effect, it said in a statement. H&M’s Russian business accounted for about 4 percent of its 199 billion kronor in sales during the past financial year. The company has operated in the country since 2009.
MALAYSIA
7-Eleven might exit drugs
Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd is weighing exiting its pharmacy chain, people with knowledge of the matter said. The Kuala Lumpur-listed company is working with an adviser on the potential divestment of Caring Pharmacy Group Bhd, which is attracting interest from some Japanese parties, the people said. The company could seek a valuation for the retailer of about US$400 million in a deal, one of the people said. 7-Eleven Malaysia is the biggest 24-hour convenience store operator in the Southeast Asian nation. The company started offering franchising programs to local entrepreneurs in 2009 after the number of stores in its network crossed 1,000 the same year.
DELIVERY
Deliveroo cuts forecast
Deliveroo PLC slashed its projections for sales growth this year after the value of transactions on its platform grew more slowly in the latest quarter, reflecting an increasingly cautious view of economic performance and mounting challenges facing consumers. The London-based food delivery company said in a statement yesterday that gross transaction value (GTV) was projected to rise 4 to 12 percent this year, after previously forecasting growth of 15 to 25 percent. That reduction comes after GTV rose 2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter in constant currency, a slowdown compared with a 12 percent expansion in the first quarter.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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