17/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | JULY 17, 2025

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Indonesia to face 19% US tariff under trade deal

India IT demand outlook remains uncertain, says Wipro chairman

Vietnam raises 4.8 trillion dong from govt bond sale HANOI: Vietnam’s State Treasury raised 4.8 trillion dong (RM779 million) in a weekly government bond auction yesterday, up from the 1.01 trillion dong raised last week. The uptake was also higher, with 48% of the bonds on offer sold, compared with 11% at last week’s auction, according to a Hanoi Stock Exchange filing. The auction took total government bond sales so far this year to 197.7 trillion dong , according to exchange data. Vietnam uses the proceeds from bond sales mainly to fund its public investments, one of the key drivers of economic growth. It aims to raise 500 trillion dong this year. At yesterday’s auction, the Treasury sold 4.69 trillion dong out of 7 trillion dong of the 10-year bonds on offer, at a coupon of 3.24%. It also sold 112.8 billion dong out of 500 billion dong of the 30-year bonds on offer, at a coupon of 3.44%. It failed to offload any of the 500 billion dong of 5-year bonds or the 2 trillion dong of 15-year bonds. On the corporate side, Vietnamese companies have raised 269.6 trillion dong via bonds this year up to July 11. The value of corporate bonds maturing in the remainder of 2025 is 125.6 trillion dong. – Reuters HCLTech reported June-quarter profit below analyst estimates on Monday and lowered its operating margin forecast for fiscal 2026. – Reuters BENGALURU: The demand outlook for India’s US$283 billion (RM1.2 trillion) IT sector remains uncertain due to US tariff risks and global geopolitical factors, a senior Wipro executive said yesterday. “Customers are getting acclimatised to living in a world that is uncertain,” said Rishad Premji, executive chairman of the country’s fourth-largest IT firm by revenue. “The (overall) environment remains uncertain. It has not gotten any worse but not gotten significantly better at the moment.” He was speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting ahead of first-quarter results scheduled to be announced today. Clients have tightened non-essential or discretionary spending and are focussing more on cost-cutting projects enabled through tech, said Premji. Uncertainty around US tariffs have dashed hopes of IT companies of a revival in client confidence and spending in its biggest market. A survey in May showed two in five tech executives had deferred discretionary projects. Premji, however, said green shoots had emerged in pockets in terms of discretionary spending. Indian IT companies have so far reported tepid earnings for the June quarter. Last Thursday, bellwether Tata Consultancy Services missed quarterly revenue estimates as its clients stayed cautious about non essential spending amid U.S. tariff-related uncertainty. TCS CEO K Krithivasan said delays in decision-making and project starts “intensified” in the June quarter, adding that it was “too early” to predict when the growth would resume.

analysts said would provide a positive catalyst for economic activities. “Well, 19% is better than 32%,” said Matt Simpson, a senior market analyst at City Index in Brisbane. “Indonesian non-oil exports such as footwear and textiles will take a hit, but energy and agriculture are set to gain. Officials are of course pleased because they’re in Trump’s good books.” Natixis warned the Indonesian economy would still be affected by Trump’s tariffs on China – Indonesia’s biggest trade partner. Myrdal Gunarto, an economist with Maybank Indonesia, described the deal as relatively good, as Jakarta is getting a tariff below those imposed on other Southeast Asian neighbours. “(The deal) opens more space for domestic lower monetary policy rate,” he said, predicting it would also trigger capital inflows. Indonesia’s central bank cut rates yesterday for the fourth time since September and said the revised tariff deal was positive for the economy amid weakening global trade and slowing domestic demand. Bank Indonesia cut the benchmark 7-day reverse repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 5.25% and also cut two other key rates. – Reuters

Indonesia and the United States have agreed to take trade relations into a new era, Prabowo said on his Instagram account, after what he described as “a very good call” with Trump. Indonesia – the world’s fourth-largest country by population and a member of G20 – ran a goods trade surplus of US$17.9 billion (RM76 billion) with the United States last year, according to the US Trade Representative. Hasan called the deal a “meeting point” between the two governments, and said Indonesia’s tariff rate was much lower than other countries in Southeast Asia. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has committed to purchasing 50 Boeing jets, US$15 billion in US energy, and US$4.5 billion in American agricultural products as part of its trade agreement with the United States, Trump said. Trump outlined an Indonesia deal similar to a preliminary pact struck recently with Vietnam, with no levies on US exports to Indonesia. It also included a penalty rate for so-called transshipments of goods from China via Indonesia. Indonesia’s stock index rose as much as 0.7% yesterday after the deal, which some

o Jakarta agrees to buy more American planes, energy and farm products JAKARTA: Indonesia said yesterday it had reached a trade deal with the United States after an “extraordinary struggle” in negotiations which resulted in a reduction of proposed US tariff rates on the Southeast Asian country’s exports to 19% from 32%. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday a deal had been struck after he spoke to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. The deal is among only a handful reached so far by the Trump administration ahead of an Aug 1 deadline for negotiations. “This is an extraordinary struggle by our negotiating team led by the coordinating minister for economic affairs,” the Indonesian president’s spokesman Hasan Nasbi told reporters yesterday. Hasan said Prabowo had also negotiated directly with Trump over the phone, without giving further details. He said Prabowo would hold a press conference later this week.

Artisans working on a pair of leather boots at the workshop of Tegep Boots, a popular Indonesian handmade leather boots maker with many dedicated customers in the US and

Europe, in Bandung. – AFPPIC

Nvidia CEO hails China AI models as ‘world class’

“I have been assured that the licenses will come very fast. “There are many order books already in.” Orders from Chinese companies for the chips need to be sent by Nvidia to the US government for approval. Sources said that internet giants ByteDance and Tencent are in the process of submitting applications. ByteDance denied that it is currently submitting applications. Tencent did not respond to a request for comment. Nvidia has also announced it is developing a new chip for Chinese clients called the RTX Pro GPU that would also be compliant with US export restrictions. – Reuters

a closed door media event in Beijing later. The CEO of the world’s most valuable firm told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday that the Chinese market is massive, dynamic, and highly innovative, and it is crucial for American companies to establish roots in China. On Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the planned resumption of sales of Nvidia’s H20 AI chips to China was part of the two countries’ negotiations on rare earths. “The most recent change was really related to the constructive and positive discussions between the US government and the Chinese government as it relates to export control discussions,” Huang told media on the sidelines of the expo opening.

BEIJING: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang described artificial intelligence models from Chinese firms Deepseek, Alibaba and Tencent as “world class” and said AI was “revolutionising” supply chains, at an exhibition in Beijing yesterday. Huang spoke briefly at the opening ceremony of China International Supply Chain Expo, one day after the AI giant said it would once again be able to sell its highly popular H20 chips in the Middle Kingdom. Billionaire Huang is on his third visit to China this year, days after meeting with US President Donald Trump, as his firm walks a tightrope between the world’s two largest economies, each of which is battling for global dominance in AI and other cutting edge technologies. The chief executive is also expected to hold