ECONOMY
Barclays upbeat on economy
British bank Barclays PLC said it is upbeat about the nation’s economy, saying that Taiwan has been doing better this year than last year in terms of exports and domestic demand. The bank maintained its forecast for economic growth at 4 percent this year. Government statistics last week showed exports increased 37.9 percent month-on-month and 3.3 percent year-on-year to US$27.23 billion last month. Barclays said in a recent note that the 3.3 percent annual growth was better than expected and was an improvement from the 2 percent year-on-year increase during the first two months, when exports were hit by the Lunar New Year holiday.
FINANCE
MOF plans property auctions
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Monday its National Property Administration is scheduled to hold three rounds of rental auctions of large state-owned properties, with data on the first round set to be released on Tuesday next week. The administration plans to solicit bids for 11 plots during the first round of auctions. The total area of the 11 plots is 3.27 hectares, with their value estimated at NT$2.3 billion (US$76.85 million), administration Deputy Director-General Pian Tzu-shu (邊子樹) said. The second round of auctions is set to be held between July and August, with the last round in October, Pian said. The ministry sold off rights to 12 plots of land last year, generating NT$3.2 billion for the national coffers, it said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure