THAILAND
Central bank hikes rate
The central bank yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest level in eight years to anchor inflation expectations more firmly in an economy on track for faster expansion amid a rebound in tourism. The Bank of Thailand’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to raise the one-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 2 percent. Although headline inflation has eased every month since January, returning within the bank’s 1 to 3 percent target in March, the Bank of Thailand has emphasized the need to keep price gains in check over time.
SEMICONDUCTORS
S Korea inventory surges
South Korea’s semiconductor inventory surged by the most in seven years, underscoring ongoing weak demand for chips, despite a global boom in artificial intelligence development. Stockpiles rose 83 percent in April from a year earlier — the biggest increase since April 2016 — and the index tracking inventories jumped to a record, data from Statistics Korea showed yesterday. Meanwhile, factory shipments fell 33 percent from a year earlier and production was cut by 20 percent, the data showed. The chips industry is a major part of South Korea’s economy, accounting for about 13 percent of total exports in April.
ITALY
Economy edges up 0.6%
The economy grew 0.6 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the previous three months, slightly more than previously estimated, official figures showed yesterday. Last month’s initial estimate by national statistics office ISTAT recorded a 0.5 percent increase in GDP in the eurozone’s third-largest economy, above the estimate of 0.1 percent across the single currency area. The first-quarter growth, which followed a slight contraction of 0.1 percent in the final three months of last year, was driven by domestic demand, ISTAT said.
AUSTRALIA
PwC case appalling: Lowe
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe yesterday said he was “appalled” by the tax scandal that has engulfed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the central bank would not enter into any new contracts with the consultancy giant until a satisfactory resolution is reached. PwC is under scrutiny after revelations that a former senior partner obtained secret information on tax policy while advising the government, before leaking it to colleagues who used it to give tax-planning advice to global clients. “The use of private information of this sort for commercial gain is wrong,” Lowe told a senate committee hearing. “It should come with very serious consequences for those that did the wrong thing.”
FINANCE
Goldman may cut more jobs
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is considering another round of job cuts amid a muted dealmaking environment that has dented revenues across Wall Street. The investment bank is working on what would be its third round of job cuts in under a year, people with knowledge of the plans said. The company eliminated several hundred jobs in September last year, followed by a much bigger round of cuts at the start of this year. The moves this time are expected to affect less than 250 people and would include more senior employees at the company, one of the people said. A representative for Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
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