17/02/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | FEB 17, 2026

17 Japan’s economy limps back to scant growth in Q4

OpenAI hires creator of ‘OpenClaw’ AI agent tool WASHINGTON: OpenAI has hired the Austrian creator of OpenClaw, an artificial intelligence tool able to execute real-world tasks, the US startup’s head Sam Altman said on Sunday. AI agent tool OpenClaw has fascinated – and spooked – the tech world since researcher Peter Steinberger built it in November to help organise his digital life. A Reddit-like pseudo social network for OpenClaw agents called Moltbook, where chatbots converse, has also grabbed headlines and provoked soul-searching over AI. Elon Musk called Moltbook “the very early stages of the singularity” – a term for the moment when human intelligence is overwhelmed by AI forever, although some people have questioned to what extent humans are manipulating the bots’ posts. Steinberger “is joining OpenAI to drive the next generation of personal agents”, Altman wrote in an X post. “He is a genius with a lot of amazing ideas about the future of very smart agents interacting with each other to do very useful things for people,” he said. “We expect this will quickly become core to our product offerings,” Altman wrote, saying that OpenClaw would remain an open-source project within a foundation supported by OpenAI. “The future is going to be extremely multi-agent and it’s important to us to support open source as part of that.” Users of OpenClaw download the tool, and connect it to generative AI models such as ChatGPT. They then communicate with their AI agent through WhatsApp or Telegram, as they would with a friend or colleague. Many users gush over the tool’s futuristic abilities to send emails and buy things online, but others report an overall chaotic experience with added cybersecurity risks. Only a small percentage of OpenAI’s nearly one billion users pay for subscription services, putting pressure on the company to find new revenue sources. It has begun testing

o Consumption slows down to 0.1% on cost-of-living woes, capex up

TOKYO: Japan’s economy limped back to meagre growth in the fourth quarter, significantly missing market expectations in a key test for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government as cost-of-living pressures drag on confidence and domestic demand. Fresh off a sweeping election victory, Takaichi’s administration is preparing to ramp up investment through targeted public spending to shore up consumption and revitalise economic growth. Yesterday’s data brings sharp focus to the challenge at hand for policymakers at a time when the Bank of Japan has reiterated its pledge to keep raising interest rates and normalise monetary settings from years of ultra-low borrowing costs amid persistent inflation and a weak yen. “PM Takaichi’s efforts to reflate the economy via looser fiscal policy look prescient,” said Marcel Thieliant, head of Asia-Pacific at Capital Economics. Gross domestic product in the world’s fourth-largest economy increased an annualised 0.2% in the October-December quarter, government data showed, well short of a median estimate of a 1.6% gain in a Reuters poll. It barely scraped back to growth from a larger revised 2.6% contraction

“Market share gains are driving this growth along with new product launches – any slowdown to share gains or new product traction presents a risk,” said Matt Montgomerie, senior equities analyst at Forsyth Barr. A2 Milk declared an interim dividend of 11.5 New Zealand cents per share, up from 8.5 cents declared a year ago. – Reuters heightened market attention to whether the dovish premier will renew her calls for interest rates to be kept low. “Although GDP posted positive growth this time, the momentum was weak, and with the need to assess the impact of the December rate hike, the likelihood of an additional hike in the near term appears to have receded,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute. The country’s inflation dynamic underscored the policy tensions between the government and central bank. Mitsubishi UFJ’s Kobayashi, for instance, expects the central bank to prioritise bringing inflation to heel. “Rather than this rate hike causing the economy to stall, the BOJ’s focus is likely to be on how to contain inflation,” he said. Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of economic output, rose 0.1% in October-December, matching market estimates. It cooled from the 0.4% rise in the previous quarter, indicating that persistently high food costs remain a drag on household spending. Capital spending, a key driver of private demand-led growth, also rose at a slow pace of 0.2% in the fourth quarter, versus a rise of 0.8% in the Reuters poll. To be sure, historically capex has been a volatile data set and future revisions could point to the economy carrying more momentum into 2026 than initial estimates suggest. That still leaves the economy with a lot of catching up to do, especially as its key manufacturing industry struggles to adapt to a protectionist US administration under President Donald Trump. Indeed, net external demand, or exports minus imports, contributed nothing to fourth-quarter growth, versus a 0.3-point drag in the July-September period. Exports did post a milder drop after the US formalised a baseline 15% tariff on nearly all Japanese imports, down from 27.5% on autos and initially threatened 25% on most other goods. “The impact of tariffs appears to have peaked in July-September, but judging from the latest results, there is at least some possibility that firms will continue to take a somewhat cautious stance going forward,” Meiji Yasuda’s Maeda said. – Reuters

fiscal year that starts in April already rather than wait until the end of this year,” Capital Economics’ Thieliant said. Japanese stocks stuttered in the wake of the GDP data, while bonds were subdued. Analysts project Japan will continue to expand at a gradual pace this year, though the fourth quarter’s weak outcome suggests the economy might struggle to fire on all cylinders. “Whether the economy can achieve sustainable growth really depends on whether real wages can firmly return to positive growth,” Shinichiro Kobayashi, principal economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting, said. A survey this month by the Japan Center for Economic Research showed 38 economists forecast an average annualised GDP growth of 1.04% in the first quarter and 1.12% in the second quarter. Economists say the latest GDP report is unlikely to affect the Bank of Japan’s policy decisions, but Takaichi’s historic election win has

in the previous quarter. The reading translates into a quarterly rise of 0.1%, also weaker than the median estimate of a 0.4% uptick. “It shows that the economy’s recovery momentum is not very strong,” Meiji Yasuda Research Institute economist Kazutaka Maeda said. “Consumption, capital expenditure and exports – areas we hoped would drive the economy – just haven’t been as strong as we expected.” The surprisingly soft momentum will keep investors on alert for Takaichi’s campaign pledge to suspend a consumption tax, an issue that sparked turmoil in Japanese markets worried about fiscal slippage in a nation with the heaviest debt burden in the developed world. “In fact, sluggish economic activity increases the chances that Takaichi will not only press ahead with suspending the sales tax on food but enact a supplementary budget during the first half of the

advertisements and sponsored content in the massively popular ChatGPT, spawning privacy concerns as it looks for ways to start balancing its hundreds of billions in spending commitments. – AFP New Zealand’s a2 Milk lifts FY revenue growth forecast

A vendor works at a shop selling sushi rolls at Tsukiji Outer Market in Tokyo. – REUTERSPIC

WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s a2 Milk raised its full-year revenue growth forecast yesterday after half-year profit beat expectations on strong sales momentum in its top market, China, sending its shares to a near five-year high. The dairy producer said it now expects fiscal 2026 revenue to rise by a mid-double-digit percentage from last year’s continuing operations, up

Segment sales rose to NZ$739 million, above the Visible Alpha estimate of NZ$714 million, driven by 6.5% growth in China-label infant milk formula revenue and a 23.9% increase in English-label sales. The company has stepped up marketing investment, particularly in China, while strengthening support for domestic growth and supply chain initiatives.

company’s net profit after tax attributable from continuing operations increased 9.4% to NZ$112.1 million (RM263 million), topping a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of NZ$104 million. Revenue from the firm’s key China-and-other-Asia segment jumped 20.3% during the period, helped by growth in its English-label infant milk formula and other nutritionals.

from its prior forecast of low double digit growth. It also expects fiscal 2026 net profit after tax to increase from last year’s reported level, compared with its earlier guidance that profit would be only “slightly up” year on year. Shares jumped as much as 11.7% to NZ$11.17, their highest level since Feb 24, 2021, before closing up 5%. For the half-year ended Dec 31, the