British banking group Barclays PLC yesterday hacked its forecast for GDP growth in Taiwan by 1.7 percentage points to 2 percent for this year, after poor exports dragged down the nation’s showing in the second quarter and might continue to weigh it down.
“Exports cut more deeply into growth last quarter, meriting a significant downward revision,” Barclays senior regional economist Leong Wai Ho (梁偉豪) said in a research note.
Taiwan turned out not to be immune to a slowdown in industrialized Asia, as evidenced by poor exports that subtracted 0.9 percentage points from growth last quarter, the economist said.
The government’s advance reading for GDP growth printed 0.64 percent during the April-to-June period, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last week and is due to update its growth projection later this month.
The figure is markedly weaker than the forecast by Barclays of 3 percent and the market consensus of 2.6 percent, Wai said.
Wai attributed the disappointing data mainly to a more gradual recovery in the US and outages at petrochemical exporters.
Compounding the headwinds was the persistent inventory overhang in electronics, which is now prompting technology companies to temper their expectations for a more modest pickup in the second half, the economist said.
Barclays stood by its expectation of a moderate acceleration in business activity in coming quarters, aided by new electronics product launches and generally steadier support from the US and Europe.
Against the current backdrop, the central bank would keep its loose monetary policy for a while longer in order to support economic growth, Wai said.
“As such, we push back our rate normalization forecast by two quarters and now expect the first rate hike of 12.5 basis points in June next year,” he said, adding the bank could raise the level of excess liquidity in the coming months.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS