■ Current account surplus shrinks
The current-account surplus, the broadest measure of the flow of goods and services, fell 23 percent in the second quarter from a year ago to US$5.14 billion, the central bank said in a statement.
The surplus reached an all-time high of US$8 billion in the final quarter of last year.
The financial account, which measures investment flows, turned to an outflow of US$857 million from an inflow of US$15.7 billion in the previous quarter, it said. Direct investment and portfolio investment showed a net outflow of US$1.1 billion and US$7.8 billion, respectively, in the second quarter, the report said.
■ Global LCD glut to widen
Global supply of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for computers and televisions exceeded demand in the first half and the glut will widen in the third quarter as eight new plants come on line this year, a researcher said.
Second-quarter supply of LCDs measuring at least 10 inches diagonally surpassed demand by 6.4 percent, compared with an oversupply of 4.2 percent in the first quarter, California-based Isuppli Corp said in a quarterly report.
Oversupply will widen to 9.3 percent in the third quarter, compared with the researcher's forecast in May of 5.4 percent, Isuppli said.
Second-quarter demand was lower than expected and LCD prices, which haven fallen "significantly"' in the first half, need to fall further for demand to live up to expectations, the report said.
■ IC industry meeting targets
The production value of the domestic IC industry in the second quarter of this year hit NT$275.7 billion (US$8.1 billion), marking both annual and quarterly growth rates in double digits, the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association reported on Thursday.
According to the association report, the figure represents 46 percent growth over the previous year's level and a 14.8 percent rise over the first-quarter level.
The IC design, manufacturing, testing and packaging sectors all registered double-digit increase rates compared to their first-quarter levels, ranging from 22 percent to 11 percent, while even higher double-digit growth rates were posted in annual terms, ranging from 57 percent to 32 percent, the report shows.
The production value for the third quarter is estimated to increase slightly by 7.7 percent to NT$296.9 billion, according to the report.
■ Investment in China drops
Taiwan's corporate investment in China fell 28 percent last month from a year ago after Beijing tightened credit to rein in economic growth.
Approved investment declined to US$379 million from US$528 million in July last year, the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The amount declined from this year's peak of US$1 billion in May.
In the first seven months of this year, Taiwan's approved investment in China rose 48 percent to US$3.8 billion from US$2.5 billion a year ago.
Taiwan's investment in China rose to a record US$4.6 billion last year.
■ NT dollar gains
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar for the first week in six after overseas investors bought stocks, closing up NT$0.024 at NT$34.046 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$599 million.
Fund managers abroad yesterday bought a net NT$10.6 billion (US$311 million) of equities, the most since March 8, bringing purchases in the past four days to a net NT$16.4 billion, according to Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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