Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) jumped to 51.3 last month, from 49.6 in November, providing more evidence of a gradual increase in the momentum of a recovering economy, a report by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.
It has been the first time the composite PMI rose over 50 since June last year, when the Taipei-based think tank released its second pilot report.
A PMI reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below 50 signifies a contraction.
On Monday, HSBC said in a report that the nation’s manufacturing PMI returned to expansion last month, rising to an eight-month high of 50.6 last month from 47.4 in November. The British banking group said the data ended six straight months of declines on improved demand from the US and China.
“The results showed that economic sentiment has been on an upturn trend and led us to maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook for the economy in the first quarter,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a press conference.
The CIER’s PMI — a leading indicator of the economic outlook in the next three to six months — consists of five sub-indices: new orders, production, employment, inventories and supplier deliveries.
The new orders sub-index surged to 52.6 points last month from 52.4 in November, the second consecutive month it stayed above the 50-point threshold.
Meanwhile, the production sub-index rose for the second month in a row, increasing 3.7 points from November to 54.8 last month, with the employment sub-index also climbing to 53.3 last month, from 49.9 recorded a month earlier, the report said.
However, supplier deliveries and inventories remained under the 50-point threshold last month, standing at 48.2 points and 47.8 points respectively, the report’s data showed.
The composite PMI reading for four of Taiwan’s six major industries — the chemical, bio-technology and medical sector, the basic raw material sector, the transportation sector, and the electrical and mechanical sector — all stood above 50 points last month, indicating expansion.
The electronics and optical sector marked the only industry signifying contraction in PMI last month, with the food and textile sector staying flat at 50 points, statistics showed.
Supply Management Institute in Taiwan (SMIT, 中華採購與供應管理協會) executive director Steve Lai (賴樹鑫) said the PMI reading for the electronics sector may start to move upward after March, as its peak period for production draws closer.
The end of the peak period for the electronics and optical industries was also the major factor slowing the rising pace of new orders last month, Lai added.
Commissioned by the Council for Economic Planning and Development, the CIER started working on the PMI at the end of 2011 in collaboration with the SMIT.
Last month’s survey polled purchasing managers at about 230 companies in the manufacturing sector.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
RSS