CPI falls in October
Taiwan's consumer price index fell 0.07 percent in October, the fifth successive month of decline, the island's official statistics agency said Wednesday.
A continued fall in home rentals and durable goods prices was behind the fall, which was somewhat countered by higher fuel and vegetable prices, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
October's decline was less than the 0.22 percent drop in September.
``It's still too early to say whether the narrowing decline of the CPI indicates a better economy and increased consumption,'' said Tsuei Chou-ying, division chief at the statistics agency.
``If the global economy continues to improve, we could see a renewed 'spring' for Taiwan's economy ... and deflationary pressure may ease.''
For the first 10 months of the year, the CPI was down 0.28 percent, the WPI was up 2.73 percent, and the core CPI was down 0.64 percent compared with a year ago.
Forex reserves top US$196bn
Taiwan's foreign exchange reserves rose to a new record high of US$196.61 billion (NT$6.68 trillion) at the end of October, up US$6.03 billion (NT$205.12 billion) from the previous month, the central bank said Wednesday.
It was the 26th successive month of record foreign exchange reserves for Taiwan, and topped the US$190.58 billion (NT$6.48 trillion) recorded at the end of September.
The central bank cited inflows of foreign capital and income of US$921 million (NT$31.33 billion) from American Depositary Receipts issued by the Cabinet's Development Fund as reasons for October's increase.
The central bank also named returns from foreign exchange reserve management as another reason for the October record.
UMC to invest in Japan
UMC Japan, a unit of United Microelectronics Corp (聯電), plans to use funds raised from a sale of Y18 billion (US$164 million) in bonds to boost production in Japan and start operations at a Singapore affiliate.
Chiba-based UMC Japan will use Y5.2 billion of the sale to help begin production next year at UMCi Pte Ltd, a UMC subsidiary in which it has a 5 percent stake, said Hiroshi Kunimoto, a company spokesman. The rest will go toward increasing capacity in Japan, he said.
The company today set the price of the bonds, which don't pay interest, at 101.25 percent of their Y10 million face value.
CMC expects big profits
CMC Magnetics Corp (中環), the world's biggest maker of recordable compact discs, said it expects to post this year NT$6 billion (US$176.5 million) in pretax profit, which will rise by about two-thirds next year on strong demand, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing Chairman Bob Wong (翁明顯).
CMC expects next year to take 40 percent of the global market for recordable DVD discs, which will account for about a third of the company's sales, the report said.
CMC will have an advantage over rivals in Taiwan because it is the only local company that has authorization from recordable DVD patent holders Royal Philips Electronics NV and Pioneer Corp. to make the discs, the paper said.
CMC on Oct. 30 said net income for the first nine months of this year soared to NT$4.2 billion from NT$15 million a year ago.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rose against its US counterpart, edging up NT$0.007 to close at aNT$34.018.
Turnover was US$384 million.
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