■ Economy slowing down
Taiwan's index of leading indicators for last month stood at 108.9 points, down 1.2 percent from September, showing signs of an economic slowdown, the government said yesterday.
In September, the index of leading indicators registered a 0.5 percent month-on-month increase, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said.
The index of coincident indicators for last month, which coincides with the current pace of economic activity, fell 0.4 percent month-on-month to 109.2 points, after posting a revised 1.3 percent decrease in September, it said.
The total score of monitoring indicators for last month was 20 points, compared with 23 points, or a revised 22 points, for September.
The monitoring indicators for last month showed a "yellow-blue light," signalling economic slowdown, marking five consecutive months for this indicator.
■ FCC warns Taishin Financial
The Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday that if Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) cannot improve the capital adequacy of its banking arm by the end of January, the financial group will be required to dispose parts of its holdings in Chang Hwa Bank (彰化銀行).
Taishin International Bank's (台新銀行) capital adequacy ratio dropped to 8.42 percent in its third-quarter financial book, below the regulator's requirements, including a minimum of 10 percent, when parent Taishin Financial applied in June to buy an extra 7.5 percent stake in Chang Hwa to lift its holdings to 30 percent within a year, the commission said.
If it cannot raise enough funds to push the ratio back to 10 percent as required, the company will have to dispose the 2 percent holdings, which it has acquired in the open market, by June 15 next year, it added.
Taishin Financial has decided to pour NT$4 billion (US$122.3 million) into its banking arm and to raise another NT$8 billion from foreign investors by the end of this year.
■ Nanya raises NT$10 billion
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), Taiwan's second-biggest memory-chip maker, raised NT$10 billion selling bonds as it steps up spending on new facilities.
The five-year debt, which won't pay any interest, can be converted to the company's stock at NT$32.38 a share, Taoyuan-based Nanya Technology said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The company's shares fell 1.1 percent to NT$26.1.
Nanya Technology's capital spending will jump more than 10-fold to NT$60 billion next year from NT$5.8 billion this year, vice-president Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) said at a briefing in Taoyuan on Oct. 25.
Nanya Technology is expanding capacity as Microsoft Corp will start selling its new Windows Vista operating system next year. The higher memory requirements to run Vista has generated demand from Dell Inc and other PC makers for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used to store data, which Nanya produces.
■ EPA encourages composting
Household or kitchen waste can be turned into a cash cow if the waste is properly collected and treated, officials with the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said yesterday.
Officials from the EPA's Bureau of Environmental Inspection estimated that NT$2.4 billion can be generated annually by collecting kitchen waste and making it into compost.
The EPA has been pushing for the recycling of kitchen waste nationwide, aiming to turn food waste or leftovers into rich soil additives that can be used by publicly run organizations, farmers or private household gardens as organic fertilizers, the officials said.
Over 1,600 tonnes of food waste are collected nationwide every day.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last