The nation’s economy last quarter expanded 2.41 percent annually, beating the government’s May estimate of 1.78 percent on the back of better-than-expected private investment and exports, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
“Exports and private investment fared stronger than our expectations, thanks to order transfers and capital repatriation,” DGBAS Senior Executive Officer Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a media briefing in Taipei.
External demand contributed 0.72 percentage points to GDP growth during the April-to-June period, versus a drag three months earlier, as the decline in exports tapered to 2.58 percent. The agency had forecast a 3.43 percent decline.
Photo: Cheng Chi-fang, Taipei Times
Demand for semiconductors and electronics, the mainstay of Taiwanese exports, started to pick up, although most other categories continued to disappoint, Huang said.
As several firms have shifted part of their manufacturing capacity back home amid a trade dispute between China and the US, exports of information and communications products increased 20.15 percent, the agency said.
Exports are likely to gain more momentum after returning to growth in June, thanks to the arrival of a peak season for technology products, the Ministry of Finance said last month.
Major technology firms gave positive guidance in recent earnings conferences, but were wary of headwinds at home and abroad.
Exports of goods and services would grow 4.11 percent annually if excluding a price decline of 5.57 percent in US dollar terms, Huang said.
Capital formation proved the biggest growth driver with a 6.04 percent increase from a year earlier, contributing 1.23 percentage points to GDP growth, the agency said.
The showing beat the agency’s May forecast of a 5.3 percent gain.
“The pace of capital repatriation is much faster than the government’s expectations,” Huang said.
Imports of capital equipment rose 15.95 percent in US dollar terms, as firms raised capital expenditure to maintain technology leadership and seize 5G business opportunities, DGBAS said.
Consumer spending rose 1.57 percent, slower than a projection of 1.76 percent, the agency said.
Meanwhile, daily stock turnover shrank 21.17 percent from a year earlier, subduing the benefits of modest growth in retail, wholesale and dining businesses, it said.
Washington’s tariff hikes on Chinese goods in May unnerved investors, but the sentiment has recovered considerably after the two sides agreed on a truce in June and resumed trade negotiations this week.
In the first two quarters, Taiwan’s economy grew 2.07 percent and is expected to continue growing in the coming quarters.
The agency is to announce its new growth forecast on Aug. 16.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS