The nation's economy showed signs of slowing down, as the index of leading indicators last month edged down from January, mainly because of the flattening growth rate of export orders, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.
The index of leading indicators -- a gauge for the nation's economic activity in the next three months -- dropped 0.1 points to 108.5 points last month, after climbing 0.9 points in January, the council said.
A slowing growth rate in export orders and customs-cleared exports, as well as the declining number of construction licenses issued, were factors that brought down the index, the council said.
Positive contributions to the index were money supply, average work hours in the manufacturing sector and wholesale prices.
Coincident index
The coincident index, which coincides with the pace of economic activity, stood at 109 last month, the same level as January, the council said, basing its assessment on revised data.
The total score of monitoring indicators was up one point to 19, flashing a "yellow-blue" light, signaling a slowdown for the second consecutive month after flashing a "blue" light, signifying recession, last December, the council said.
Survey
The council also released yesterday a survey on manufacturers, whose business expectations improved from January to last month.
In the poll, 29 percent of respondents expected the economy to improve over the next three months, up from 17 percent a month earlier, while 8 percent held a negative view, down from 12 percent.
Sixty-three percent of the producers surveyed, meanwhile, expected the nation's economic performance to remain unchanged, down from 71 percent in January.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”