logo
Daily roundup: Fewer private university grads find full-time jobs in 2024, compared to 2023 — and other top stories today, Singapore News

Daily roundup: Fewer private university grads find full-time jobs in 2024, compared to 2023 — and other top stories today, Singapore News

AsiaOne30-05-2025
Stay in the know with a recap of our top stories today.
1. Fewer private university grads find full-time jobs in 2024, compared to 2023
Fewer private university graduates found full-time jobs within six months of graduating in 2024 than in the previous year.
According to the 2024 Private Education Institution Graduate Employment Survey... » READ MORE
2. Made in Singapore: First locally-made Kia, the EV5, officially launched
Kia has launched its first locally-made model, the EV5 electric SUV, which will be assembled at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre Singapore (HMGICS) in Jurong... » READ MORE
3. 'A project out of love': Dad-daughter duo sets up assisted living community to honour late grandma
When the Covid-19 pandemic reached Singapore five years ago and triggered a lockdown here, the Kok family had no choice but to halt the frequent social activities their dementia-stricken grandmother enjoyed... » READ MORE
4. Zheng Geping gets surprise birthday celebration on drama set
He thought it was time to film, only to be surprised with a chorus.
Local actor Zheng Geping turned 61 on May 27, and his family as well as the crew and cast members on the set of their drama The Cellphone Swap threw him a surprise celebration... » READ MORE
editor@asiaone.com
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

RBA says decline in competition costs Australians A$3,000 per person
RBA says decline in competition costs Australians A$3,000 per person

Business Times

time6 hours ago

  • Business Times

RBA says decline in competition costs Australians A$3,000 per person

[SYDNEY] A decline in business competition in Australia from the mid-2000s to the Covid-19 pandemic has hurt productivity and household incomes, according to new analysis by the Australia central bank. If competition had not dropped, productivity and therefore output would have been 1 to 3 per cent higher due to resources being better allocated across firms in the economy, Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Jonathan Hambur and Owen Freestone said in a research paper released on Thursday (Aug 14). This equates, at the upper end, to around A$3,000 (S$2,511) per person, they said. The duo said there's 'substantial evidence' that competition slid over the 'decade or so' leading up to the pandemic. Markets became more concentrated, with dominant firms securing a larger share of sales, becoming more entrenched and harder to displace, while markups — the ratio of price to marginal cost — also rose. 'One way in which weaker competition may have led to lower productivity is by causing a misallocation of resources across firms,' they said. The RBA this week blamed weak productivity for sluggishness in the economy, assessing potential growth at around 2 per cent, down from 3 per cent two decades ago. Australia's centre-left government will convene a three-day roundtable in Canberra next week to generate ideas to boost economic efficiency. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'The past decline in competition has significantly dragged on aggregate productivity over the period,' Hambur and Freestone said. They added that according to the model they used, this shouldn't weigh on future productivity gains. 'However, if competition continues to weaken, or if weaker competition was to weigh on a firm's impetus to improve (which is not captured in the model), there still could be ongoing effects,' they said. The RBA, in its quarterly update of forecasts released on Tuesday, downgraded its productivity growth assumption to 0.7 per cent from 1 per cent. governor Michele Bullock addressed the change in a news conference that day. 'One of the reasons we've come to this position is that our forecasts were such that we were hitting our employment and our inflation forecasts, but we were overestimating our GDP and our consumption forecasts,' she said. 'So there was a tension.' BLOOMBERG

Tencent's AI restraint shows risk of Alibaba, JD food war
Tencent's AI restraint shows risk of Alibaba, JD food war

Business Times

time9 hours ago

  • Business Times

Tencent's AI restraint shows risk of Alibaba, JD food war

[BEIJING] China's biggest tech companies are bouncing back after years on the ropes with outsized ambitions to dominate in everything from robots and smart glasses to cheap meals. But investors want them to focus their spending where it counts – artificial intelligence (AI). From Meta Platforms to Google, one topic has dominated the conversation this tech earnings season: how Silicon Valley's leaders will invest to seize the momentum in a game-changing technology. In China, the industry is just as enthralled by a three-way battle to deliver the cheapest meals and knick-knacks, fastest. That conflict between Alibaba Group Holding, and Meituan, both on social media and in the physical consumer arena, is not just compressing margins and irking investors - it's risking Beijing's scrutiny. So far this year, JD, Alibaba and Meituan have pledged or spent billions of US dollars hiring delivery people, creating coupons and plying their millions of daily users with advertising about free milk tea and other instant retail promotions. Investors responded with a sell-off in Meituan and JD, the most exposed to the price war, shedding around a combined US$100 billion in market value since late last year. Things came to a head last month when the industry regulator called all three into a private meeting to lay down the law. And days later, the trio coordinated contrite statements promising to end 'disorderly competition'. But in reality, they have no choice but to keep going, analysts say, because they are essentially fighting for the lifeblood of their business: users. With AI still years away from monetisation, that's become the central existential problem to China Tech Inc. 'We want less food delivery wars and more reasons to be optimistic about AI monetisation,' said Vey-Sern Ling, managing director at Union Bancaire Privee. 'Ultimately, for tech companies to perform, they have to deliver top-line growth. Progress on the monetisation of AI is one way – whether directly, such as through the provision of cloud services or indirectly by enhancing their respective core businesses.' BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up After years of regulatory scrutiny and Covid-era disruption, the country's biggest tech firms are once again ramping up deals and competing fiercely for users to propel growth. Investors have piled into China's tech resurgence over the past year, betting on the country's biggest firms after a rapprochement with President Xi Jinping's government in February. Those companies are still trading far below their peak. The food wars did not help. One outlier, however, has been Tencent - it's outperformed its biggest peers this summer. Tencent on Wednesday (Aug 13) kicked off earnings season for China's big tech with revenue that beat estimates and a plan for prudence in AI spending, despite faster-than-anticipated growth across its gaming and advertising businesses. Its shares rose as much as 2.4 per cent in Hong Kong on Thursday, reaching their highest level in more than four years. JD made a sudden foray into food delivery in February, sparking a price war with Alibaba and market leader Meituan. It's what Morgan Stanley refers to as the 'prisoner's dilemma', three heavyweights locked in a seemingly irrational conflict, none willing to blink first. After making early progress, JD is struggling to attract new users, and investors are clamouring for clues about the direction behind the spending spree. 'It's very difficult to guess what JD wants to do. They have been all over the place doing various things, trying to spend a lot of money, but we do not know what they want to achieve,' said Roxy Wong, senior portfolio manager at BNP Paribas Asset Management Asia. 'All of a sudden, they are doing everything at the same time.' Alibaba's margins are expected to take a toll from its massive spending plans, which include splashing US$52 billion on AI infrastructure and forking out US$7 billion on food delivery subsidies. Investors are also asking tough questions about its strategy. 'For Alibaba, the food delivery business may not be that important, but when it comes to the battle, they cannot retreat,' said Li Chengdong, head of Beijing-based Internet think-tank Haitun. 'While the recent huge spending is definitely not what investors are keen to see, Alibaba's investment in AI remains an uncertainty, as well as the current investment may not necessarily yield results.' Meituan is enjoying fresh momentum off the back of a partnership with Kuaishou, a Chinese live-streaming platform. But like JD, it's getting distracted at home as it looks to build an empire abroad. The company's successful Keeta app in Hong Kong has set a template for overseas moves. It launched in Saudi Arabia last September and, according to Chinese media outlet LatePost, it's now eyeing expansion into Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain over the next three years. 'The competition will stop when everyone returns to normal business judgment and rationality,' Wang Puzhong, head of local commerce at Meituan, told LatePost last month. 'Right now we are all in a state of irrational excitement.' BLOOMBERG

Singapore million-dollar flat sales hit record in Q2, market data shows
Singapore million-dollar flat sales hit record in Q2, market data shows

Business Times

timea day ago

  • Business Times

Singapore million-dollar flat sales hit record in Q2, market data shows

[SINGAPORE] A record number of Singapore public housing units were sold for S$1 million or more in the June quarter, a private data provider said on Wednesday (Aug 13), taking the number of high-value sales in the first half of the year to almost 75 per cent of the 2024 total. Eight out of 10 Singapore citizens live in public housing built and sold by the government, and its affordability is a key issue for policymakers alongside high living costs. According to real estate agency OrangeTee Group, a record 415 apartments were sold at prices above S$1 million in the second quarter, a 75.8 per cent increase compared with the same period in 2024, after 348 sales in the first quarter. Sales of million-dollar flats this year are 'on track to exceed last year's full-year record of 1,035 units', OrangeTee Group analysts said in a report. The most expensive resale in the quarter was a 122 sqm apartment which sold for S$1,658,888, the report showed. Overall, resale prices rose 0.9 per cent on a quarterly basis, according to earlier government data. While prices have now risen for 21 straight quarters, it was the smallest rise since the second quarter of 2020, during the CovidD-19 pandemic. OrangeTee Group analysts expect public home resale prices 'to rise modestly for the remainder of the year, driven by our stable economic fundamentals and declining interest rates', forecasting an annual rise of 4 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Last year, the government sought to cool the market by reducing how much buyers can borrow from the state. After a better-than-expected first half performance, the government on Tuesday raised its GDP growth forecast for 2025 to 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent from 0.0 per cent to 2.0 per cent, having cut the forecast earlier this year after the announcement of US tariffs. REUTERS

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store