Asia is capable of weathering the fallout from a US slowdown as the region's export dependence on the world's largest economy has waned, US investment bank Merrill Lynch says.
With the global economy also likely to withstand slower US growth better than expected, this augurs well for the region's export-led growth engines, it said in a report for next year yesterday.
"If the global economy holds up as we expect, the slowdown in Asian export growth should be mild in 2007," Merrill Lynch said.
According to Merrill Lynch, the US share of Asian shipments has declined steadily in recent years, accounting for 16.5 percent last year compared with a peak of 25.5 percent in 1999.
Eighteen percent of Asian exports now go to China, 15 percent to Europe and 10 percent to Japan.
"One factor driving the world's increased independence from the US, in our view, is the recent evidence that the global investment cycle is poised to remain strong," it said.
The US economy is widely projected to slow next year in what analysts describe as a "soft landing."
For next year, global growth excluding the US is projected to slow to 5.3 percent from this year's 5.8 percent as the US economy weakens to 1.7 percent from 3.2 percent, Merrill Lynch said.
"Our key global macro call remains intact; despite a significant slowdown in US growth, we still expect the global economy to weather the US storm better than expected," it said.
Part of Asia's resilience stems from the openness of the region's economies. That means continued robust growth in Europe and Japan will offset the likely housing-driven US slowdown, Merrill Lynch said.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
RSS