Domestic consumption continued to pick up last month, with the wholesale, retail, as well as food and beverage (F&B) sectors reporting record-high growth.
Total revenues from the three sectors amounted to NT$1.12 trillion (US$34 billion) last month, posting growth for the fourth straight month, as the local economy emerged from the financial crisis, Ministry of Economic Affairs statistics showed yesterday.
The total represented 17.9 percent growth from a year ago, the highest year-on-year rise since the department started the tallies in January 1999.
However, for the full year, total revenues from the three sectors were down 3.3 percent to NT$12.46 trillion from a year earlier, said Fung Tein-chi (馮田琪), deputy director-general of the ministry’s statistics department.
The retail sector reported 13.8 percent revenue growth to NT$303 billion last month, with automobiles, motorcycles and components sales seeing the highest increase of 74.5 percent.
“The imminent termination of the commodity tax subsidy prompted consumers to rush to purchase new cars,” Fung told a press conference.
The government cut the NT$30,000 commodity tax on new car purchases last year to boost sales, but the scheme ended at the end of last month.
The subsidy boosted car sales by 162.77 percent to 44,976 units last month as people joined a last-minute spree to cash in on the subsidy.
However, retail sales of information, communications and technology products, as well educational and entertainment articles, experienced a drop last month.
“General consumption was up, but unemployment and stagnant pay hindered growth in sales of these products,” Fung said.
Revenues last month for the wholesale sector climbed 20.2 percent to NT$793 billion, while the F&B sector saw sales edge up 1.6 percent to NT$26.5 billion, the statistics showed.
Meanwhile, industrial production expanded a record 47.3 percent last month from a year earlier amid rising demand for locally made panels, semiconductors and other electronics products.
The growth was partly attributed to a low base a year earlier, when the global financial crisis affected demand.
Last year’s production output was down 8.74 percent from 2008.
Fung said the ministry expects industrial production in the first half of this year would “be strong,” backed by the economic recovery in Europe and the US, as well as China — Taiwan’s largest trade partner — replacing Japan as the world’s second-largest economy.
Increasing capital expenditure by companies would also drive growth, he said.
For instance, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest computer memory chipmaker, has said it plans to spend NT$20 billion on new equipment this year, up from NT$14.6 billion last year.
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