The business climate for the manufacturing sector continued building up steam last month, as 47.9 percent of manufacturers polled in a survey were bullish about their business outlook in the next six months, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
That was compared to the 9.6 percent of manufacturers expressing pessimism over the same period, the survey showed.
“The global economy may keep the trend that started last year, with stronger momentum in the US and Europe than in Asian economies,” Gordon Sun (孫明德), director of the institute’s macroeconomic forecasting center, told a media briefing.
RECOVERY
A steady economic recovery in the West may further drive up development of Taiwan’s manufacturers in the information and electronics sector, Sun added.
Also yesterday, the government-funded Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center (IEK) raised its growth forecast for the output value of Taiwan’s manufacturing sector this year, citing a warming global economic climate.
GROWTH
The sector’s output value is expected to grow by 3.17 percent to NT$17.74 trillion (US$584.76 billion) this year, compared with the center’s previous estimate made last month, when it forecast manufacturing output would grow by an annual 3.09 percent to NT$17.72 trillion, the IEK said.
Meanwhile, TIER’s survey also indicated that the business climate in the service sector improved last month, while that in the construction sector turned sour over the past month.
Sun expects short-term volatility in the nation’s housing market, due to the mixed impact of the government’s mild increase in public investment and potential home buyers’ wait-and-see attitude toward the market.
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