The nation's economic growth rate this year is likely to surpass the government-set target of 5 percent amid the global economic recovery, a private think tank said yesterday.
In addition, exports and industrial production have shown marked growth year-on-year, providing a favorable foundation for an economic pickup, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER,
"There are plenty of reasons for us to be optimistic about the latter half of this year," TIER president Wu Rong-i (
The passage of the Special Statute for Increasing Investment in Public Construction (
However, he said that the imbalance between inbound and outbound trade volumes must be addressed.
China-bound investments hit US$1 billion last month, more than 60 percent of the overall outbound volumes. In contrast, inbound investments only reached US$186 million, showing more efforts are needed to lure foreign investors, he said.
The export sector will continue to boom amid the strong recovery of the world economy, which is spurring imports of raw materials and industrial equipment, Wu said.
Export orders soared 25.9 percent last month to US$17.3 billion from a year earlier, the Ministry of Economic Affairs reported on Thursday. For the first five months of the year, manu-facturers secured export orders of US$81.5 billion, up 25.6 percent from the same period last year, the ministry said.
According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, industrial production from January to last month rose 14.4 percent over the same period last year.
However, manufacturers appeared less bullish despite the rosy prospects at home and abroad, according to the TIER survey. The survey, conducted last month, showed that 41.1 percent of respondents were optimistic about the economy for the next six months, compared to 46.4 percent in the April poll.
Some 51.1 percent of respondents maintained their economic outlook, up from 46.6 percent polled in April, while 7.8 percent of respondents appeared bearish about the economic outlook, up from 7 percent in April.
Wu attributed the lack of confidence to political infighting and China's efforts to tame its overheated economy, which has made domestic manufacturers of raw materials turn conservative.
But he said the central bank's decision to maintain a lax monetary policy would support the continuing economic recovery. The central bank said on Thursday that it would keep interest rates unchanged.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) yesterday said it plans to resume operations at two coal-fired power generators for three months to boost security of electricity supply as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply risks are running high due to the Middle East conflict. The two coal-fired power generators are at Mailiao Power Plant in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮). The plant, operated by Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), supplied electricity to Taipower’s power grid until the end of last year. Taipower’s decision came about one month after Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on March 10 said that the nation had no imminent
Some robotaxi passengers were left stranded in the middle of fast-moving traffic in a major Chinese city after their driverless vehicles stopped running, according to police and media reports on Wednesday. A preliminary investigation indicates more than 100 robotaxis came to a halt because of a “system malfunction,” police in the city of Wuhan said in a statement, without elaborating. No injuries were reported. One passenger told Chinese media that their robotaxi stopped after turning a corner. An instruction on a screen read: “Driving system malfunction. Staff are expected to arrive in 5 minutes.” After no one showed up, the passenger pushed
RSS