Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) yesterday said that the recent depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar versus the greenback may benefit Taiwan’s GDP growth.
Every NT$1 that the local currency falls against the US dollar could raise Taiwan’s GDP by 0.18 percentage points, Shih said in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) about the impact of depreciation.
However, every NT$1 fall against the greenback would also drag the growth of the nation’s consumer price index (CPI) down by 0.19 percentage points, Shih said, adding that the government would take steps to stabilize consumer prices.
The Taiwan dollar and other regional currencies seem to have lost their luster in recent sessions, amid expectations that interest rates in the US will move higher on the back of improving economic data, which would make US dollar-denominated assets more attractive, according to foreign currency traders.
The US’ second-quarter economic growth of 4.6 percent released last month prompted many traders to believe that the US Federal Reserve would begin an interest rate hike cycle sooner than the market expected, traders said.
On Monday, the NT dollar fell to its lowest level in six months, dropping to NT$30.502 on the local foreign exchange market.
The local unit yesterday rose NT$0.03, or 0.11 percent, to close at NT$30.46, in line with the movements of regional currencies, as traders took cues from disappointing economic data released in Washington overnight to cut their greenback holdings.
The economy is forecast to grow 3.41 percent this year and expand by 3.51 percent next year, the DGBAS said in August.
Shih remained confident that GDP would reach the DGBAS’ goal this year, attributing sluggish economic momentum over the past few years to the negative impact of the 2008 global financial crisis.
However, DPP Legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) yesterday said that the economy has not been strong since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008, as Taiwan registered an average of 3.05 percent growth in GDP over the past six years.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day