The number of revoked or nullified company licenses reached 7,106 last month, surging 123.32 percent from a year earlier, amid a domestic economic downturn and global financial turmoil, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) tallies showed.
Last month’s results were the highest this year.
“Many small businesses are experiencing cash flow difficulties amid the financial crunch,” Steve Lin (林祖嘉), an economics professor at National Chengchi University, said by telephone yesterday.
Lin said he did not think the situation would improve in the short term because declining stock prices slow domestic consumption and overseas demand has also decreased, exports falling 1.6 percent last month.
Even big cities like Taipei are not immune to the slowdown, with 900 companies in Taipei closing shop last month, up from 468 companies a year earlier, the Department of Statistics said.
“The problem isn’t that consumers don’t have the money to spend, but rather their lack of confidence and unwillingness to spend,” Lin said.
The Department of Statistics said the number of companies dissolved had reached 7,064 in August, more than twice the 2,962 that closed in July and 3,342 in June, indicating that the nation’s economy had significantly worsened.
In the first nine months of this year, 37,372 companies have dissolved, up 14.29 percent from the same period a year ago. The accumulated capital was NT$458.2 billion (US$13.66 billion), up 41.56 percent year-on-year.
In comparison, the number of newly registered companies was 2,276 last month, up only 4 percent from last year’s figure of 2,186.
In addition, the number of factory closures last month skyrocketed 183.81 percent from a year earlier to 596.
The number of unemployed people last month was 464,000, of whom 145,000 lost their jobs because of factory closures, a recent report by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS