Paris — Chinese state-owned carmaker GAC is exploring the manufacture of EVs in Europe to avoid EU tariffs, the general manager of its international business told Reuters on Sunday, joining a growing list of Chinese companies planning local production. 

The company is among China’s largest automakers and is targeting 500,000 overseas sales by 2030. It does not yet sell EVs in Europe but will launch an electric SUV tailored to the European market at the Paris Auto Show, which kicks off Monday. 

GAC still viewed Europe as an important market that was “relatively open” despite moves by the European Commission to impose tariffs on EVs made in China, Wei Heigang said, speaking in Paris ahead of the show. 

“The tariffs issue definitely has an impact on us. However, all this can be overcome in the long term … I am positive there is going to be a way to get it all resolved,” he said. 

“Local production would be one of the ways to resolve this,” he added. “We are very actively exploring this possibility.” 

Discussions were at a very early stage and the company was still considering whether to build a new plant or share — or take over — an existing one, according to Wei. 

The compact SUV on display in Paris, a 520-kilometer (323-mile) range vehicle called “Aion V,” should launch in some European markets in mid-2025, priced at less than 40,000 euros ($43,748), though the final price has not yet been set, GAC said. 

After that launch, the next GAC vehicle due for sale in Europe will be a small electric hatchback, to be released in late 2025. 
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Mount Juliet, United States — Amazon is bolstering its e-commerce empire while continuing a march deeper into people’s lives, from robots to healthcare and entertainment.  

Innovations unveiled in recent days by the Seattle-based tech titan included a delivery van computer system to shave time off deliveries by its speed-obsessed logistics network.   

Amazon Stores boss Doug Herrington said that the technology enables vans to recognize stops and signal which packages to drop off.  

“When we speed up deliveries, customers shop more,” Herrington said.  

“For 2024, we’re going to have the fastest Prime delivery speeds around the world,” he added, referring to Amazon’s subscription service.  

On top of that, according to Herrington, Amazon last year managed to cut 45 cents off the cost per unit shipped, a huge savings when considering the massive volume of sales.  

Prime is the ‘glue’  

Amazon last year recorded profit of more than $30 billion on revenue of $575 billion, powered by its online retail operation and its AWS cloud computing division.  

“They have this whole flywheel model with Amazon Prime membership in the middle,” said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian.  

“That’s the glue that keeps everything together.”  

Businesses include retail, advertising, cloud computing and streamed movies and music.  

But that very model has the 30-year-old company facing a US government lawsuit, accused of expanding an illegal monopoly and otherwise harming competition.   

Amazon makes money from data gathered about consumers, either by targeting ads or through insights into what products they might like, Davidkhanian said.  

That was why Amazon paid for expensive rights to stream NFL American football games on Prime Video in a move that promises to help it pinpoint fans of the sport.  

Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa can order items on command and has been even built into appliances such as washing machines to let them automatically buy supplies like laundry soap as needed.  

A ‘pocket pharmacy’  

Amazon showed off enhancements to its virtual health care service called One Medical.  

For $9 a month Prime members are promised anytime access to video consultations with health care professionals, along with record keeping and drug prescriptions.  

An Amazon Pharmacy takes advantage of the company’s delivery network to get prescriptions to patients quickly, striving for speeds of less than 24 hours for 45 percent of customers by the end of next year.  

“We’re building a pharmacy in your pocket that offers rapid delivery right to your door,” Amazon Pharmacy chief Hannah McClellan said, referring to the option of using a smartphone app.  

The healthcare market promises to be lucrative for Amazon, which is “trying to be the platform that has everything for everyone,” said analyst Davidkhanian.  

Real world wrinkles  

Amazon has suffered setbacks when it comes to brick-and-mortar stores but it continues to strive for a winning strategy.  

The company next year will open its first “automated micro warehouse” in Pennsylvania, next to a Whole Foods Market organic grocery shop, the chain it bought in 2017.  

People will be able to pick up certain items selected online, with orders filled by robots, after shopping next door for fresh produce and groceries.  

Meanwhile, Amazon is ramping up use of artificial intelligence at its online store with tools helping sellers describe and illustrate products.  

Product labels will change according to the user, displaying terms likely to catch their attention such as “strawberry flavor” for some and “gluten-free” for others.   

“The things that Amazon is doing with AI are to make sure that you go from researching something to making the purchase as quickly as possible,” Davidkhanian said.  

At the logistics center near Nashville, robotic arms deftly placed packages in carts that autonomously made their way to trucks.  

Logistics center automation improves safety and frees up workers for more interesting tasks, according to Amazon robotics manager Julie Mitchell.  

However, critics cite delivery speed pressure and other factors as making Amazon warehouses more dangerous than the industry average. 
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BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s triple-digit inflation, among the world’s highest, is starting to slow down but this offers little relief for workers whose salaries have stayed the same while costs of basic goods skyrocketed and the government slashed state subsidies.

“We’re losing track of what’s expensive and what’s cheap,” said university professor Daniel Vazquez while shopping in Buenos Aires. “Prices keep going up and the only thing that isn’t going up is salaries.”

“The gap is very, very big,” he said.

While annualized inflation in September remained well into the triple digits at 209%, month-on-month price hikes slowed to their lowest level since late 2021 at 3.5%, data from the national statistics agency showed on Thursday.

The data landed in line with the forecasts of analysts, who predict that inflation will end 2024 at 124%.

Libertarian President Javier Milei has cut subsidies to sectors such as energy and transportation, while vowing to trim what he calls bloat in the public sector, shuttering some offices and trimming jobs.

“You’ve never seen inflation being fought like this before. It takes a little longer but it’s genuine,” Milei wrote on X after the inflation data was published Thursday.

The tough austerity drive has prolonged a recession and caused poverty rates to surge to around 53%.

Computer programmer Ivan Cortesi, 30, said that while food prices remained similar to last month, utility costs rose significantly.

“This past month there has been a significant increase in all utilities,” he said.

According to the statistics agency, rents as well as water, power and gas prices led monthly inflation, up over 7%, followed by clothing and shoes which rose 6% and education costs that increased over 4%.

Food prices increased just 2% from last month but more than tripled their level from a year ago, while housing and utility costs nearly quadrupled. Cigarettes, alcohol, health care, transport and communications also tracked annual inflation well above 200%.

Milei devalued the local currency when he took office in December, and the sharp spending cuts have particularly hit informal workers, civil servants, pensioners, doctors and teachers.

On Wednesday, Argentina’s Congress failed to overturn Milei’s controversial veto of a law that would have shored up university spending in line with inflation, following mass protests by students and university workers against the measure.

Milei has vowed to veto any law that threatens the fiscal balance.
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beijing — China said Saturday it would issue special bonds to help its sputtering economy, signaling a spending spree to bolster banks, shore up the property market and ease local government debt as part of one of its biggest support packages in years.

The plan is part of a series of actions undertaken by Beijing to draw a line under a years-long property sector crisis and chronically low consumption that has plagued the world’s second-biggest economy.

Beijing’s planned special bonds are aimed at boosting the capital available to banks — part of a push to get them lending in the hopes of firing up sluggish consumer spending.

China is also preparing to allow local governments to borrow more to fund the acquisition of unused land for development, aimed at pulling the property market out of a prolonged slump.

No figures were provided on the planned special bonds announced at a highly anticipated news conference by Finance Minister Lan Fo’an and other officials, following a series of steps launched in recent weeks that have included interest rate cuts and liquidity for banks.

But Lan said China still has room “to issue debts and increase the deficit” to fund the new measures.

Officials have been battling to reverse China’s slowdown and achieve a growth target of five percent this year — enviable for many Western countries but a far cry from the double-digit expansion that for years boosted the Asian giant.

On Saturday, Lan said Beijing was “accelerating the use of additional treasury bonds, and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds are also being issued for use.”

“In the next three months, a total of 2.3 trillion yuan of special bond funds can be arranged for use in various places,” he added.

On top of that, Beijing also plans to “issue special government bonds to support large state-owned commercial banks,” Lan said, although he did not say how much.

Chinese authorities have been urging commercial banks to lend more and lower mortgage rates — measures that would put more cash into the pockets of consumers.

Beijing’s bonds would therefore offer banks help to shore up their capital, giving them greater leeway to lend more.

Bonds for buildings

And local governments will be issued special bonds enabling them to acquire unused and idle land for development, Vice Finance Minister Liao Min said, in action that could prop up the housing market.

The move would “help ease liquidity and debt pressures on local governments and real estate companies,” he explained.

Beijing will also encourage the acquisition of existing commercial properties to be used as affordable housing.

However, analysts expressed frustration that Beijing had refrained from putting a number on further fiscal stimulus.

“The key messages are that … the central government has the capacity to issue more bonds and raise fiscal deficit, and… the central government plans to issue more bonds to help local governments to pay their debt,” Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said.

Beijing was likely “still working on the minute details of the fiscal stimulus,” Heron Lim at Moody’s Analytics told AFP.

“In the meantime, investors might be taking a step back until they are absolutely certain of the direction fiscal policy is taking.”

‘Lack of forward guidance’

China’s economic uncertainty is also fueling a vicious cycle that has kept consumption stubbornly low.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, said that “notably absent was any mention of large-scale handouts to consumers” on Saturday.

“The lack of forward guidance on the scale of next year’s budget deficit means it is still difficult to judge how large and long-lasting the fiscal boost will be,” he pointed out.

Chinese policymakers have in the last weeks unveiled a string of stimulus measures including a suite of rate cuts and a loosening of rules on buying homes, but economists said that more action is needed to pull the economy out of its slump for good.

Earlier Saturday, China’s top banks said they would cut lower interest rates on existing mortgages from October 25, state media said, following a government call for the action.

“Except for second mortgages in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and some other regions, the interest rates on other eligible mortgages will be adjusted” to no less than 30 basis points below the prime lending rate, the central bank’s benchmark rate for mortgages, state broadcaster CCTV said.

CCTV reported that major banks, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank had announced that they would make the adjustments “in batches.”

The People’s Bank of China last month requested that commercial banks lower such rates by October 31.

Beijing also last month slashed interest on one-year loans to financial institutions, cut the amount of cash lenders must keep on hand and pushed to lower rates on existing mortgages.

And the central bank this week boosted support for markets by opening up tens of billions of dollars in liquidity for firms to buy stocks. 
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