Seoul, Oct 21: Samsung Electronics Co. plans to use its in-house Exynos mobile processor in upcoming Galaxy S26 smartphone models, industry sources has said.

The company’s System Large Scale Integration (LSI) division, a fabless unit that focuses on designing and developing advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products, has completed development of the latest Exynos 2600 chip and will supply it for parts of the Galaxy S26 series starting in November, according to the sources, reports Yonhap news agency.

Exynos chipsets are designed and produced by Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business.

According to the sources, the company’s in-house tests show strong performance from the Exynos 2600 compared with competitors, and the company believes the chip compares favorably with Apple Inc.’s A19 Pro used in the iPhone 17 Pro models.

The Exynos 2600 is expected to appear in at least one Galaxy S26 model, anticipated to be unveiled early next year.

If the top-tier Galaxy S26 Ultra uses an Exynos chip, it would be the first Ultra model to include an in-house processor since the Galaxy S22 series in 2022.

Previously, Samsung Electronics used Qualcomm Inc.’s Snapdragon chipsets across all Galaxy S23 models, while Exynos appeared only in some S24 variants.

The Galaxy S25, S25 Plus and S25 Ultra, launched earlier this year, all use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

Meanwhile, launch of the new generation Galaxy S26 series models in India is expected next year in January or March.

According to multiple reports and industry watchers, the model is slated to compete with with several flagships in the market, including the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

If reports can be believed, the price of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra 5G mobile price in India is expected to be around Rs 1,59,999 for the base model.

There is also buzz doing rounds that it may offer 12GB of RAM with 3 storage options of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

However, industry watchers expect that the official pricing will be based on the storage variants.

Wellington, Oct 20: New Zealand’s annual inflation reached 3 per cent till the September 2025 quarter, following a 2.7-per cent increase in the year till the June 2025 quarter, Stats NZ reported Monday.

This met the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 1-3 per cent target band for the annual inflation rate, according to a statement of the Statistics Department, Xinhua News Agency reported.

“The 3.0 per cent annual inflation rate in the September 2025 quarter is the highest since the June 2024 quarter, when it was 3.3 per cent,” Stats NZ prices and deflators spokesperson Nicola Growden said.

The largest contributors to the annual inflation rate were all in the housing and household utilities group, led by power, rent, and local authority rates, with the top three contributors making up around 17 per cent of the weight in the basket of New Zealand’s consumer price index, Stats NZ said.

Electricity prices jumped 11.3 per cent over the year, the largest annual gain since the March 1989 quarter when they rose 12.8 per cent, statistics show.

“Annual electricity increases are at their highest since the late 1980s, when there were several major reforms in the electricity market,” Growden said.

Prices fell over the year for pharmaceuticals, telecoms equipment, and petrol, helping offset some cost pressures, Stats NZ said.

On a quarterly basis, consumer prices rose 1 per cent in the September 2025 quarter, compared with the June 2025 quarter, driven largely by higher local authority rates and a 12.2-per cent increase in vegetable prices due to seasonal factors, it said.

Acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop said expectations are for inflation to drop towards 2 per cent in the first half of 2026, easing pressure on households and businesses.

On October 16, Stats NZ reported that food prices in New Zealand rose 4.1 per cent in the 12 months to September 2025, marking the smallest annual increase since April this year.

The grocery food group contributed most to the rise, up 3.9 per cent annually, according to the Statistics Department statement.

Key staples saw significant annual price hikes: white bread increased 49.6 per cent; cheese rose 31.4 per cent; butter climbed 28.9 per cent; and milk was up 15.1 per cent, Stats NZ said.

Vegetables also increased by 5.2 per cent annually, with cabbage nearly doubling in price from September 2024 to September 2025, the highest in nearly three years, and lettuce was up 55 per cent, it said.

“All five food groups continue to grow annually, but the rate of increase for overall food prices has slowed this month,” Growden said.

However, monthly food prices fell 0.4 per cent in September compared with August, driven by price drops in vegetables and chocolate, marking the first monthly decline since February 2025, statistics show.

Mumbai, Oct 19: The RBI is likely to go in for another policy rate cut before the end of the year, which, along with fiscal consolidation and domestic regulatory easing, would lead to a gradual recovery in credit demand, according to a Goldman Sachs report.

“We expect an additional policy rate cut before year-end, and the recent GST simplification signals that peak fiscal consolidation is behind us. We expect this, along with domestic regulatory easing, to foster a gradual recovery in credit demand,” the report said.

The report observes that the recent measures announced by the RBI should ease supply-side credit conditions; however, the extent of incremental lending will depend on the demand situation in the broader economy.

External headwinds continue to weigh on India’s outlook, including tighter US immigration costs for H-1B visas that affect Indian IT services, in addition to elevated US tariffs on Indian goods and “these factors could temper credit demand alongside broader macro uncertainty”, the report states.

India’s inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) declined to an over 8-year low of 1.54 per cent in September this year. This gives the RBI more space to focus on reducing the policy rate and injecting more liquidity into the economy to promote growth.

The RBI has raised its projection of India’s GDP growth rate to 6.8 per cent for 2025-26 from 6.5 per cent earlier, as the implementation of several growth-inducing structural reforms, including streamlining of GST, is expected to offset some of the adverse effects of the external headwinds, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra said earlier this month.

He pointed out that India’s GDP recorded a robust growth of 7.8 per cent in Q1:2025-26, driven by strong private consumption and fixed investment. On the supply side, growth in gross value added (GVA) at 7.6 per cent was led by a revival in manufacturing and steady expansion in services. Available high-frequency indicators suggest that economic activity continues to remain resilient. Rural demand remains strong, riding on a good monsoon and robust agricultural activity, while urban demand is showing a gradual revival, the RBI Governor further stated.