Business executives are gradually turning optimistic about business prospects despite the fact that the business climate index (BCI) has slid for six consecutive months since May, a private think-tank reported yesterday.
In its latest opinion poll conducted in October, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research found that 20.4 percent of Taiwan companies think that business will turn for the better in the following six months. The figure represented an increase of 1.5 percentage points from the previous month's 18.9 percent.
Some 18.5 percent of those surveyed said they believe that business will turn for the worse in the next six months, representing a noticeable fall from the previous month's 29.4 percent.
Meanwhile, 61.1 percent said they think that business will remain the same, up from the month-earlier figure of 51.7 percent.
The pace of Taiwan's economic recovery seems to have slowed in the second half of this year, with the BCI sliding for the sixth consecutive month since May, researchers said.
The BCI reached peaked at 113.16 in April after an evident recovery in business and trade in Taiwan and abroad since the second half of 2001. However, the BCI for Taiwan began to slide in May, gradually dropping to 102.26 in October.
Wu Rong-I (吳榮義), the institute's president, said that although Taiwan's overall economic situation at present isn't too good as a result of the slowdown in global economic recovery, the rate of decrease of the Taiwan BCI has been getting smaller on a month-on-month basis.
For the fourth quarter of this year, Wu estimated, economic growth will hit around 3.25 percent, with the foreign trade sector expected to be the most brisk, while growth in government investment, private investment and private consumption are all expected to decrease or remain flat.
The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics forecast Tuesday that Taiwan's overall economic growth will top 3.17 percent for the fourth quarter, slightly lower than the 3.34 percent that it forecast in August, while growth for 2003 will be around 3.38 percent, down from its previous estimate of 3.46 percent.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
RSS