■ Credit-card use soars
More than 3 million new credit cards were issued during the first quarter of this year, according to statistics from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). During the three-month period, 2.36 million credit cards were cut up, with the number of valid credit cards in circulation totaling 477.5 million as of the end of March -- a 16.1 percent growth over the previous year's level. Meanwhile, Q1 credit card transactions were worth a total of NT$344.8 billion (US$11.1 billion), up by 25.4 percent compared to the previous year's level. The value of pre-pay loans reached NT$54 billion at the end of March, an annual expansion of 30.8 percent. Debt in circulation reached as high as NT$469 billion, a 13.5 percent increase year on year. There is an average of 135 cards for every 100 residents older than 15.
■ Chip sales forecasted to rise
Global sales of semiconductors will gain 6.1 percent this year, market researcher ISuppli Corp said, raising its forecast from December as chipmakers use inventory faster than expected. evenue from the chip industry will total about US$240.4 billion after a 24 percent gain to US$226.6 billion last year, said Greg Sheppard, executive vice president of the El Segundo, California-based researcher. The company had earlier forecast a 4.7 percent increase. lowing sales of mobile phone and other consumer electronics in the first half of last year prompted chipmakers to slow investments on concern there would be a glut of semiconductors, Sheppard said in an interview with Bloomberg in Tokyo. Suppli forecasts global chip revenue to gain 3 percent next year, followed by 10 percent and 12 percent growth in 2007 and 2008, according to presentation material distributed yesterday.
■ Trade surplus posted
Taiwan posted a trade surplus of US$370 million for the first four months of this year, marking a sharp decline of 87.2 percent from the year-earlier level, according to statistics released on Tuesday by the Bureau of Foreign Trade. The tallies show that exports amounted to US$58.49 billion in the January-April period, up 8.7 percent, while imports posted a 14.2 percent growth at US$58.12 billion, leaving a trade surplus of US$370 million. A board official said that Hong Kong and China remained the nation's largest export markets this year, with 36.7 percent of exports going there.
■ Better ties could boost economy
Taiwan's economic growth and profits at China Airlines (華航) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮) may benefit as relations with China improve, Morgan Stanley said. Under direct links, an estimated 226,796 to 272,155 tonnes of air cargo a year could arrive in Taiwan from Shanghai for eventual shipment to the US, Morgan Stanley analyst Chin Lim wrote in a report dated yesterday. China is expected "soon" to allow more tourists to visit Taiwan, Dickson Ho (何資文), head of research at Morgan Stanley in Taipei, wrote in a note dated Tuesday. If 360,000 Chinese visitors toured Taiwan a year, their spending would boost the nation's GDP by 0.05 percent, Ho said. The gain would be 0.4 percent if three million Chinese visit the country a year, he said.
■ NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday continued to gain ground against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.008 to close at NT$31.210 on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$535 million, down from US$629 million the previous day.
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