http://hypoventurecapital-news.com/2011/05/hypo-venture-capital-zurich-headlines-taiwan-ranks-sixth-place-in-world-competitiveness/
Taipei, May 19, 2011 (CENS)–Taiwan ranks sixth place in world competiveness, up two notches from last year, its best showing ever, according to the 2011 World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the International Institute for Management and Development (IMD), based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
IMD compliments Taiwan for its ability to stage a rapid upturn from the impact of the global financial tsunami but downgrades Taiwan`s ranking for government efficiency to 10th place, from last year`s sixth place, due to the effect of government stakes and bureaucratic administration on corporate activities. IMD remarks that government efficiency is key to national competitiveness and postponement in government reform would threaten economic development.
Of the four major indicators of the world competitiveness evaluation, Taiwan suffers decline only in the sector of government efficiency. It jumps eight notches in economic performance and advances one notch in infrastructure. It stays at the third place for corporate efficiency.
In the latest evaluation of IMD, which covers 59 economies, Hong Kong and U.S. stand side by side at the first place, replacing Singapore, while Korea ranks 22nd place, mainland China 19th place, and Japan 26th place. Taiwan ranks sixth place worldwide and third place in Asia, trailing Hong Kong and Singapore.
Stephane Garelli, director IMD`s World Competitiveness Center, pointed out that the global financial tsunami has apparently impacted major economies, but economies ranking top 10 in world competitiveness manifest strong resilience. Another IMD official attributed Taiwan`s remarkable performance to the flexibility and resilience of its economy. Another major factor contributing to Taiwan`s competitiveness is the signing of cross-Taiwan Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which is conducive to the enlargement of cross-Strait trade, stabilization of cross-Strait relationship, and strengthening of the confidence for corporate investment and private consumption, according to IMD.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Surprise boost to retail sales unlikely to hold
http://hypoventurecapital-news.com/2011/05/hypo-venture-capital-zurich-headlines-surprise-boost-to-retail-sales-unlikely-to-hold/
UK retail sales spiked in April after weaker data the month before, but experts warned it was likely a temporary boost due to a later Easter, warmer weather and the “royal wedding effect”.
Food and clothing sales led to a 1.1% jump in sales volumes, which represented a 2.8% increase year-on-year.
But experts said last month’s bounce on the high street was aided by what the Office for National Statistics (ONS) termed “unusual events” and would likely peter off next month.
Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “While welcome, we strongly doubt that the 1.1% jump in retail sales volumes in April is a sign that the consumer is roaring back to life. Rather, what it suggests is that pressurised customers need a particularly favourable set of circumstances to part with their cash.”
He said this is demonstrated by the relatively muted increase of 0.2% in the three months to April compared to the three months to January.
But Vicky Redwood, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, pointed out the ONS figures do adjust for the Easter timing effects unlike the British Retail Consortium measure of sales, so the strength does not just reflect the later fall of the Christian festival.
She admitted the warmest April on record and the extra Bank Holiday will have made a difference, but added: “Not all sectors benefited from the warm weather. For example, sales in ‘other’ (including department stores) fell. Indeed overall non-food sales rose by only 0.4% month on month.
“What’s more, if the warm weather and Royal Wedding encouraged people to eat and drink at home, rather than go out, then the strength of retail sales in April may just have been offset by weaker spending on consumer services.”
Back in March, retail sales showed a 0.4% rise month-on-month and an increase of 0.9% year-on-year.
Sterling’s reaction
Like the experts, it seemed the markets too were sceptical of April’s figures. While the FTSE 100 regained earlier losses by Thursday lunchtime, the pound only marginally strengthened against the euro and dollar.
Richard Driver, currency analyst at CaxtonFX, said: “Sterling has made some gains in response, but not as much as you’d normally expect with such an impressive figure. Gains have been limited by a broader view that the UK economy is in pretty poor shape, and this is the key obstacle to a Bank of England rate rise this year.”
Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, agreed: “The broader picture of a weak consumer outlook remains unchanged. High inflation is eroding real incomes and the labour market remains weak.”
UK retail sales spiked in April after weaker data the month before, but experts warned it was likely a temporary boost due to a later Easter, warmer weather and the “royal wedding effect”.
Food and clothing sales led to a 1.1% jump in sales volumes, which represented a 2.8% increase year-on-year.
But experts said last month’s bounce on the high street was aided by what the Office for National Statistics (ONS) termed “unusual events” and would likely peter off next month.
Howard Archer, chief European and UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “While welcome, we strongly doubt that the 1.1% jump in retail sales volumes in April is a sign that the consumer is roaring back to life. Rather, what it suggests is that pressurised customers need a particularly favourable set of circumstances to part with their cash.”
He said this is demonstrated by the relatively muted increase of 0.2% in the three months to April compared to the three months to January.
But Vicky Redwood, senior UK economist at Capital Economics, pointed out the ONS figures do adjust for the Easter timing effects unlike the British Retail Consortium measure of sales, so the strength does not just reflect the later fall of the Christian festival.
She admitted the warmest April on record and the extra Bank Holiday will have made a difference, but added: “Not all sectors benefited from the warm weather. For example, sales in ‘other’ (including department stores) fell. Indeed overall non-food sales rose by only 0.4% month on month.
“What’s more, if the warm weather and Royal Wedding encouraged people to eat and drink at home, rather than go out, then the strength of retail sales in April may just have been offset by weaker spending on consumer services.”
Back in March, retail sales showed a 0.4% rise month-on-month and an increase of 0.9% year-on-year.
Sterling’s reaction
Like the experts, it seemed the markets too were sceptical of April’s figures. While the FTSE 100 regained earlier losses by Thursday lunchtime, the pound only marginally strengthened against the euro and dollar.
Richard Driver, currency analyst at CaxtonFX, said: “Sterling has made some gains in response, but not as much as you’d normally expect with such an impressive figure. Gains have been limited by a broader view that the UK economy is in pretty poor shape, and this is the key obstacle to a Bank of England rate rise this year.”
Nida Ali, economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, agreed: “The broader picture of a weak consumer outlook remains unchanged. High inflation is eroding real incomes and the labour market remains weak.”
Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Zynga reportedly preparing public offering of stock
http://hypoventurecapital-news.com/2011/06/hypo-venture-capital-zurich-headlines-zynga-reportedly-preparing-public-offering-of-stock/
Zynga, the San Francisco developer of social games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille, is preparing to file an initial public offering of stock this week or next, according to the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D blog.
Zynga’s last round of funding valued the company at $10 billion. But a stock offering could allow Zynga to harvest a substantially higher valuation, according to All Things D, citing anonymous sources.
Other technology IPOs have done well this year. Demand Media in January enjoyed a 33% pop in share price on its first day of trading. Shares of LinkedIn, a social network aimed at executives and job seekers, soared 109% on its first day of trading last week, giving the Bay Area company an eye-popping $9-billion valuation. And most recently, Yandex, nicknamed “Russia’s Google,” clicked up 55% on its first day out Tuesday on the Nasdaq.
The enthusiastic investor reception has laid the groundwork for other expected technology IPOs, including Facebook, Pandora, Groupon and Zynga.
Calls to Zynga were not immediately returned.
The company is the largest developer of Facebook games. Its 55 games and applications draw nearly 248 million players a month, according to AppData.com, a site that tracks usage on Facebook. By comparison, the second-largest game developer on Facebook, Electronic Arts, has just 36.6 million monthly players.
Social games are largely free to play. They make money by selling gift cards that can be redeemed for virtual goods used within the games. They also make money by promoting the products and services of other companies, either within the game itself or through “offers” that give consumers game credits in exchange for signing up for credit cards or buying merchandise from sponsors.
Zynga does not release its financials, but the company is said to be highly lucrative, as a small proportion of players shell out a disproportionate amount of money on game credits.
eMarketer, a market research firm, esimated that revenue from social games would hit $1.09 billion this year in the U.S., up from $856 million last year. About 60% of the revenue comes from selling virtual goods, with the rest coming from ads and promotions, according to eMarketer.
Zynga, the San Francisco developer of social games such as Mafia Wars and FarmVille, is preparing to file an initial public offering of stock this week or next, according to the Wall Street Journal’s All Things D blog.
Zynga’s last round of funding valued the company at $10 billion. But a stock offering could allow Zynga to harvest a substantially higher valuation, according to All Things D, citing anonymous sources.
Other technology IPOs have done well this year. Demand Media in January enjoyed a 33% pop in share price on its first day of trading. Shares of LinkedIn, a social network aimed at executives and job seekers, soared 109% on its first day of trading last week, giving the Bay Area company an eye-popping $9-billion valuation. And most recently, Yandex, nicknamed “Russia’s Google,” clicked up 55% on its first day out Tuesday on the Nasdaq.
The enthusiastic investor reception has laid the groundwork for other expected technology IPOs, including Facebook, Pandora, Groupon and Zynga.
Calls to Zynga were not immediately returned.
The company is the largest developer of Facebook games. Its 55 games and applications draw nearly 248 million players a month, according to AppData.com, a site that tracks usage on Facebook. By comparison, the second-largest game developer on Facebook, Electronic Arts, has just 36.6 million monthly players.
Social games are largely free to play. They make money by selling gift cards that can be redeemed for virtual goods used within the games. They also make money by promoting the products and services of other companies, either within the game itself or through “offers” that give consumers game credits in exchange for signing up for credit cards or buying merchandise from sponsors.
Zynga does not release its financials, but the company is said to be highly lucrative, as a small proportion of players shell out a disproportionate amount of money on game credits.
eMarketer, a market research firm, esimated that revenue from social games would hit $1.09 billion this year in the U.S., up from $856 million last year. About 60% of the revenue comes from selling virtual goods, with the rest coming from ads and promotions, according to eMarketer.
Hypo Venture Capital Headlines:Euro Weakens Versus Dollar on Sovereign-Debt Concern; Kiwi Touches Record
http://hypoventurecapital-news.com/2011/06/hypo-venture-capital-headlineseuro-weakens-versus-dollar-on-sovereign-debt-concern-kiwi-touches-record/
The euro fell for the first time in three days against the dollar on concern the currency region will struggle to contain its sovereign-debt crisis.
The currency slid versus most of its major counterparts after Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou said last week in Athens that he will press ahead with additional austerity measures after failing to win backing from opposition parties. New Zealand’s dollar dropped after surging today to its highest level since exchange-rate controls ended in 1985 as the nation’s trade surplus widened to a record in April.
“Until we get resolution, some clarity on what’s going on, the market is not going to have the confidence to take the euro higher,” said David Watt, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC Capital Markets unit in Toronto.
The euro depreciated 0.3 percent to $1.4282 at 5:06 p.m. in New York, from $1.4319 on May 27. The shared currency traded at 115.60 yen, compared with 115.67. The dollar was at 80.94 yen, compared with 80.80, after touching 80.70 on May 27, the lowest level since May 16. The pound fell 0.2 percent to $1.6475.
Markets were closed today in the U.S. for the Memorial Day holiday and in the U.K. for the Spring Bank Holiday.
The euro declined after Greece’s Antonis Samaras, leader of the biggest opposition party, New Democracy, rejected last week Papandreou’s plan for austerity measures, saying his party wouldn’t be blackmailed.
Call for Consensus
European Union officials have called for consensus on the package, which includes an extra 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) of budget cuts and a plan to speed 50 billion euros of state- asset sales.
France’s consumer spending decreased 0.3 percent in April after a 0.7 percent drop in the previous month, according to the median forecast of 16 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The report from the national statistics agency is due tomorrow.
The euro has fallen 2.1 percent in the past month for the worst performance of 10 developed-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The Swiss franc has strengthened 3.6 percent, and the yen has added 2.3 percent.
New Zealand’s dollar slid 0.4 percent to 81.63 U.S. cents after touching 82.19, the highest since the end of exchange-rate controls more than 25 years ago.
Exports outpaced imports by NZ$1.11 billion ($910 million) in April, compared with a revised NZ$578 million surplus in the prior month. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for a NZ$600 million surplus.
Kiwi’s Resilience
“Resilience of the kiwi has been very impressive,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Credit Agricole SA in Hong Kong. “The figures today from New Zealand are obviously helping out as the trade data was far stronger than the market had expected.”
IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, was little changed before reports this week forecast to show employers hired fewer workers in May and manufacturing cooled this month.
“The data has, on the whole, disappointed,” said Khoon Goh, head of market economics and strategy at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington, New Zealand. “The market will just continue to push further out expectations for Federal Reserve tightening. The dollar will probably continue to weaken.”
The euro fell for the first time in three days against the dollar on concern the currency region will struggle to contain its sovereign-debt crisis.
The currency slid versus most of its major counterparts after Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou said last week in Athens that he will press ahead with additional austerity measures after failing to win backing from opposition parties. New Zealand’s dollar dropped after surging today to its highest level since exchange-rate controls ended in 1985 as the nation’s trade surplus widened to a record in April.
“Until we get resolution, some clarity on what’s going on, the market is not going to have the confidence to take the euro higher,” said David Watt, senior currency strategist at Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC Capital Markets unit in Toronto.
The euro depreciated 0.3 percent to $1.4282 at 5:06 p.m. in New York, from $1.4319 on May 27. The shared currency traded at 115.60 yen, compared with 115.67. The dollar was at 80.94 yen, compared with 80.80, after touching 80.70 on May 27, the lowest level since May 16. The pound fell 0.2 percent to $1.6475.
Markets were closed today in the U.S. for the Memorial Day holiday and in the U.K. for the Spring Bank Holiday.
The euro declined after Greece’s Antonis Samaras, leader of the biggest opposition party, New Democracy, rejected last week Papandreou’s plan for austerity measures, saying his party wouldn’t be blackmailed.
Call for Consensus
European Union officials have called for consensus on the package, which includes an extra 6 billion euros ($8.6 billion) of budget cuts and a plan to speed 50 billion euros of state- asset sales.
France’s consumer spending decreased 0.3 percent in April after a 0.7 percent drop in the previous month, according to the median forecast of 16 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The report from the national statistics agency is due tomorrow.
The euro has fallen 2.1 percent in the past month for the worst performance of 10 developed-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indexes. The Swiss franc has strengthened 3.6 percent, and the yen has added 2.3 percent.
New Zealand’s dollar slid 0.4 percent to 81.63 U.S. cents after touching 82.19, the highest since the end of exchange-rate controls more than 25 years ago.
Exports outpaced imports by NZ$1.11 billion ($910 million) in April, compared with a revised NZ$578 million surplus in the prior month. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists was for a NZ$600 million surplus.
Kiwi’s Resilience
“Resilience of the kiwi has been very impressive,” said Mitul Kotecha, head of global foreign-exchange strategy at Credit Agricole SA in Hong Kong. “The figures today from New Zealand are obviously helping out as the trade data was far stronger than the market had expected.”
IntercontinentalExchange Inc.’s Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against the currencies of six major U.S. trading partners, was little changed before reports this week forecast to show employers hired fewer workers in May and manufacturing cooled this month.
“The data has, on the whole, disappointed,” said Khoon Goh, head of market economics and strategy at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Wellington, New Zealand. “The market will just continue to push further out expectations for Federal Reserve tightening. The dollar will probably continue to weaken.”
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