The government’s business climate monitor last month turned “yellow-blue,” indicating that the nation’s export-driven economy is losing steam as US-China trade tensions and emerging market volatility deepen uncertainty, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The overall business gauge shed two points to 22, dragged by weaker readings on industrial output and manufacturing industry sentiment, among other measures, the council said in a report.
“Domestic firms have turned cautious about their business outlook, as the US-China trade dispute and the rout in emerging markets linger,” NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a media briefing.
The council uses a five-color system to describe the nation’s economic condition, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting overheating and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual-color signs reflect a transition.
The economy is still expanding, although the pace has softened a bit amid increased downside risks, Wu said, adding that the main problem lies with private-sector confidence.
The government has been taking steps to shore up private investment in renewable energy, biotechnology and other areas, but has refrained from intervening in equity markets, Wu said.
The leading index series, which predicts the economic picture in six months, stood at 101.26 last month, down 0.11 percent from a month earlier, the report said.
Data on export orders, TAIEX closing prices and M1B monetary measures all showed negative cyclical movements, the report showed.
Semiconductor equipment imports, new construction area and net employment rates showed positive cyclical movements, it said.
The coincident index series, which reflects existing economic twists, increased 0.24 percent to 100.82 on the back of improvements in machinery and electrical equipment imports, and customs-cleared exports, the council said.
The indices for manufacturing shipments, trade and food sales, and non-agricultural employment posted negative movements, it said.
Wu said she did not see signs that the economy might take a downturn.
Instead, a stable job market and the advent of the peak sales season for tech products and clothing might lend support to consumer spending abroad and at home, she said, adding that unemployment last month dropped to a new low of 3.76 percent.
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to