Taiwan’s per capita national debt was NT$222,000 (US$7,525) as of the end of last month, up about NT$2,000 from the previous month, according to the latest data shown on the National Debt Clock on Saturday.
The clock, which updates the country’s debt total on the seventh day of each month, showed an increase in the per capita debt for the fifth consecutive month.
The value of outstanding central government loans with a maturity of more than one year was NT$4.874 trillion last month, up from NT$4.834 trillion in February, according to data from the National Treasury Agency.
Short-term loans with a maturity of one year or less stood at NT$284.1 billion last month, up NT$15 billion from NT$269.1 billion in February.
Since the end of October last year, when the per capita debt stood at NT$204,000, it has risen by NT$18,000, according to the data.
National Treasury Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Hsueh-hsiang (陳雪香) said the NT$4.874 trillion long-term debt was still within the agency’s annual budget of NT$4.9 trillion.
However, the agency will carefully monitor government spending, she said.
The Ministry of Finance has been releasing regular data on the national debt since December 2010 and set up the debt clock to track the figure.
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
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],”
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