MALAYSIA
Jobless rate falls to 3.5%
The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent in February, as growth in all sectors of the economy led to increased labor demand, the Department of Statistics said. Labor force participation in the Southeast Asian nation climbed to 69.9 percent, the highest in records going back to 2010, causing the overall unemployment rate to drop to the lowest since February 2020, the data show. The labor market’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to continue in line with the broad economy, which is forecast to grow between 4 to 5 percent this year.
TURKEY
Balance stays in red
The country’s current-account balance stayed deep in the red in February, a key vulnerability for the economy as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government tries to keep the lira and inflation in check ahead of elections next month. The shortfall in the broadest measure of trade in goods and services was US$8.78 billion, the central bank said in a report yesterday, more than forecast by economists. That compares with a record deficit in January that was revised to US$10 billion and a gap of US$5.3 billion in February last year. The two main drivers of the deficit have been purchases of energy and gold, especially as households increasingly turned to bullion to shield themselves against inflation that climbed over 85 percent last year.
INDIA
New Delhi ends UK talks
The government has “disengaged” from trade talks with Britain after accusing it of failing to condemn the Sikh extremist group that attacked the Indian High Commission in London last month, The Times reported yesterday, citing British government sources. The incident occurred on March 19, when protesters with “Khalistan” banners staged a demonstration at the High Commission and took down an Indian flag from the building’s first-floor balcony to denounce recent police action in Punjab. “Indians don’t want to talk about trade until they get a very public demonstration of condemnation of Khalistan extremism in the UK,” a Whitehall source told The Times.
INVESTMENT
Berkshire selling yen bonds
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc has started sounding out investors about the sale of yen bonds, having already established itself in recent years as one of the biggest foreign issuers of debt in the Japanese currency. Early guidance for pricing of the three-year portion of the debt is about 70 basis points over mid-swaps, people familiar with the matter said. Multiple tranches are up for sale, with early guidance for the 30-year maturity at roughly 125 basis points, the people said. The deal, if it proceeds, might price on Friday.
ELECTRONICS
Huawei mulls Riyadh HQ
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) is looking to make Riyadh its headquarters for the Middle East amid a push by the Saudi Arabian government to position itself as a regional business hub and growing diplomatic and business ties with China, people familiar with the matter said. The Chinese company, which already has offices in the Saudi capital and other cities across the Middle East, is in talks with Riyadh authorities to upgrade its presence in the country, the people said. The company has headquarters for the region in Dubai and Bahrain.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
PROTECTION: The investigation, which takes aim at exporters such as Canada, Germany and Brazil, came days after Trump unveiled tariff hikes on steel and aluminum products US President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered a probe into potential tariffs on lumber imports — a move threatening to stoke trade tensions — while also pushing for a domestic supply boost. Trump signed an executive order instructing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to begin an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of timber, lumber and their derivative products.” The study might result in new tariffs being imposed, which would pile on top of existing levies. The investigation takes aim at exporters like Canada, Germany and Brazil, with White House officials earlier accusing these economies of
Teleperformance SE, the largest call-center operator in the world, is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) system that softens English-speaking Indian workers’ accents in real time in a move the company claims would make them more understandable. The technology, called accent translation, coupled with background noise cancelation, is being deployed in call centers in India, where workers provide customer support to some of Teleperformance’s international clients. The company provides outsourced customer support and content moderation to global companies including Apple Inc, ByteDance Ltd’s (字節跳動) TikTok and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. “When you have an Indian agent on the line, sometimes it’s hard
PROBE CONTINUES: Those accused falsely represented that the chips would not be transferred to a person other than the authorized end users, court papers said Singapore charged three men with fraud in a case local media have linked to the movement of Nvidia’s advanced chips from the city-state to Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) firm DeepSeek (深度求索). The US is investigating if DeepSeek, the Chinese company whose AI model’s performance rocked the tech world in January, has been using US chips that are not allowed to be shipped to China, Reuters reported earlier. The Singapore case is part of a broader police investigation of 22 individuals and companies suspected of false representation, amid concerns that organized AI chip smuggling to China has been tracked out of nations such
RSS