With exports continuing to gather momentum in the first two months of the year, manufacturers expressed greater confidence in the economy over the near term, according to a report released by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER,
Among the respondents polled by the TIER, 57.4 percent said the economy would be in better shape for the next six months, up from 44.1 percent in January. Only 7.3 percent said the economy would get worse, down from 12.3 percent in the previous survey.
The remaining 35.3 percent said the situation would remain unchanged.
The results helped push the manufacturing climate index up to 105.32 points last month, the first rise in four months, Chen Miao (
As overseas trade for optical instruments, electronic parts and machinery continued to increase, exports in January and last month climbed 14 percent from a year earlier to US$32.31 billion, Chen said, citing figures provided by the Ministry of Finance.
Export orders also posted annual growth of 25.13 percent last month to US$20.26 billion, meaning export momentum in the first quarter remained strong, Chen said.
The services sector had a gloomier outlook given various negative factors, including shrinking real salaries and the consumer bad-loan problem, which was likely to dent private consumption, said Yang Chia-yen (楊家彥), a deputy director of TIER's research division.
The services sector's climate index decreased from 126.47 points in January to 125.11 last month, the report said.
The Council for Economic Planning and Development estimated late last year that debts accumulated from credit and cash-advance cards would trim consumption by NT$20 billion (US$614 million) this year, which would drag down the nation's economic growth by 0.15 percentage points.
Retailers have felt the pinch over the past two months, Richard Huang (
Department stores and convenience stores, the biggest contributors to the retail sector, reported lower sales last month. Department store sales fell 20 percent while convenience stores reported a 10 percent decline from a year ago.
Shrinking turnover was a result of the fewer working days recorded last month because of the Lunar New Year holiday, as well as lender efforts to start tightening credit, Huang said.
The institute remained bullish on the growth of private consumption this year, saying it would be stable, bolstered by improved employment figures.
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
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
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
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS