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Speaker 1: Seven hither duper Peter Lewis our Asia business correspondents with

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Speaker 1: US had Peter.

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Speaker 2: Good evening head.

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Speaker 1: Yes, so a bit of a bummer about the imports

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Speaker 1: and exports numbers out of China.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, And it's important for China because trade has

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Speaker 2: really been one of the few bright spots in the

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Speaker 2: economy overall over the last few quarters, but it's slowed drastically.

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Speaker 2: Exports who a up two point four percent and that

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Speaker 2: compares to almost nine percent in the previous month. Imports

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Speaker 2: have almost completely stored. They barely barely rose at all.

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Speaker 2: Not too difficult to find. Where the culprit for this

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Speaker 2: is Exports to the European Union and the US marks

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Speaker 2: their slowest rise in at least four months, and that's

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Speaker 2: because of tariff's. Tariffs are having their effects. The model

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Speaker 2: at the moment for China's economy is to direct a

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Speaker 2: lot of resources into what President Chi Jinping caused new

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Speaker 2: productive forces, and he means by that things like electric vehicles,

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Speaker 2: solar panels, batteries and so on. A lot of money

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Speaker 2: being poured into companies in those sectors and the result

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Speaker 2: is they're producing far more than the Chinese themselves can consume,

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Speaker 2: so that excess needs to be exported overseas. Now, in

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Speaker 2: previous years that would have been welcomed because it helps

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Speaker 2: keep prices down, not welcome anymore. The EU and the

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Speaker 2: US are pushing back mightily against that with tariffs. Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump has said he doesn't want to see one single

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Speaker 2: Chinese car sold in the US, and he's going to

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Speaker 2: put tariffs on them so high to make sure that

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Speaker 2: that happens. So this is having an impact on the

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Speaker 2: overall economy. We just had, in fact, this morning China's

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Speaker 2: GDP figures out for the third quarter and they slowed

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Speaker 2: from four point seven percent to four point six percent,

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Speaker 2: so already signs that it's having an impact. And this

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Speaker 2: is why we're seeing this raft of announcements from all

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Speaker 2: sorts of government departs about stimulus and money being used

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Speaker 2: to try and support the Chinese economy, to try and

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Speaker 2: revive the property market, which has been in a slump

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Speaker 2: for over three years now, and to try and also

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Speaker 2: deal with all the bad debts that are on the

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Speaker 2: balance sheets of local governments because they bought they've taken

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Speaker 2: on so much in the property sector. So it's having

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Speaker 2: an impact throughout the Chinese economy.

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Speaker 1: What do you make of there some profit number that's

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Speaker 1: just come out of TSMC.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's very very good, isn't it. Nurged fifty four

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Speaker 2: percent reported a net profit of ten point one billion

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Speaker 2: US dollars. What this shows is just how important Taiwan

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Speaker 2: is in the global supply chain these days because it

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Speaker 2: is the largest chip maker in the world. All the

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Speaker 2: big chip designers and manufact like Navidia are clients of TSMC,

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Speaker 2: and it's making a huge amount of chips that are

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Speaker 2: driving all this investment in artificial intelligence, and it's really

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Speaker 2: been supported by chips that are needed for this AI boom,

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Speaker 2: and TSMC is the leading manufacturer of these chips. And

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Speaker 2: the results have come at an important time because there

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Speaker 2: has been some fears that the AI boom is slowing,

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Speaker 2: particularly after we had results earlier last week from ASML,

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Speaker 2: which is the Dutch company that supplies the machines that

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Speaker 2: are used to make the world's most involved ships. They

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Speaker 2: reported orders that were about half of anlysts expectations, So

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Speaker 2: there was a fear that the semiconductor boom was slowing,

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Speaker 2: but these results from TSMC have rather allaid those fears.

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Speaker 2: It's also I'm sure going to attract the attention at

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Speaker 2: some point to Donald Trump, because he doesn't like things

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Speaker 2: being exported from overseas that are made overseas. And of

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Speaker 2: course Taiwan is a massive exporter of these chips. Although

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Speaker 2: it is investing a huge amount of money in Arizona

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Speaker 2: to build up some plants there. It's got three that

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Speaker 2: it's building at the moment that I suspect Taiwan is

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Speaker 2: going to fall at some point into the cross hairs

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Speaker 2: of Donald Trump.

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Speaker 1: Well probably undoubtedly. Hey, this idea from Hong Kong of

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Speaker 1: boosting the domestic economy by making alcohol cheaper, is it

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Speaker 1: actually work?

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Speaker 2: Yes, well, we wonder can Hong Kong drink any more? Already?

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Speaker 2: What this is about is about a tax on liquor.

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Speaker 2: There is a one hundred percent tax on liquor at

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Speaker 2: the moment that is going to be cut so that

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Speaker 2: it's just fifteen percent, So it takes it back to

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Speaker 2: levels of about ten or more years ago. But it's

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Speaker 2: only on liquor where there's a price of two hundred

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Speaker 2: Hong Kong dollars of an import price of two hundred dollars.

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Speaker 2: So the Financial Secretary said, it means that eighty five

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Speaker 2: percent of duties are going to be unchanged. But nevertheless,

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Speaker 2: the hope is that this will help boost tourism, which

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Speaker 2: has been decimated since the pandemic, and about seventy percent

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Speaker 2: of bar owners have reported very sharp drops in revenues

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Speaker 2: because tourists aren't coming and locals aren't going out anymore.

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Speaker 2: There's been a huge number of bars in Hong Kong

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Speaker 2: which have closed down in the last couple of years.

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Speaker 2: So the hope from the Chief Executive in his policy

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Speaker 2: address this week where he announced this is that it's

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Speaker 2: going to give a boost to the tourism sector. That

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Speaker 2: the problem is Hong Kong needs to find some new

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Speaker 2: areas where it can boost growth because these traditional areas

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Speaker 2: like property, like shipping, like tourism and retail are just

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Speaker 2: not working at the moment. The economy has changed. Hong

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Speaker 2: Kongers aren't spending as much in Hong Kong. They're going

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Speaker 2: over the border to Shenzen to spend their money where

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Speaker 2: it's far cheaper. So Hong Kong can't rely on these

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Speaker 2: traditional sectors anymore to be a driver of growth in

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Speaker 2: the way they used to be in previous years.

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Speaker 1: It's fascinating. Peter thanks so much man. We'll talk to

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Speaker 1: you in a week's time. Again, it's Peter Lewis as

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Speaker 1: your business correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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