The Japanese government raised its assessment of the economy for the first time in eight months, as it sees stimulus spending and improved conditions for exporters driving a recovery from recession.
“The recovery is expected to resume while supported by the improvement of export conditions,” Japan’s Cabinet Office said in a monthly report released yesterday, after it downgraded its assessment in four of the last seven months.
The government announced ￥10.3 trillion (IS$117 billion) in stimulus earlier this month to boost growth and end deflation. Stocks fell and the yen rose for a third day after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Tuesday set a 2 percent inflation target with no deadline and delayed extra easing for a year.
“The economy is recovering because production has been strong,” said Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo. “We may see a slowdown from 2014 when the effects of Abe’s policies begin to wear off.”
Goldman Sachs raised its real GDP growth forecast for the year, which starts in April, to 2 percent from 1.2 percent, it said in an e-mailed note to clients.
“Public works in the stimulus package, yen depreciation that has factored in anticipated monetary policy changes and the attendant improvement in corporate and household sentiment” were reasons cited for the increase.
In another sign of the challenges facing Abe, corporate loans fell last month from three months earlier, a poll of senior loan officers released by the BOJ showed.
Japan’s economy may have contracted for a third quarter in the October-December period by 0.6 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Goldman Sachs expects public works to power GDP growth to 3.2 percent in the three months from April.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
RSS