South Korea’s consumer confidence rose to a near seven-year high as the economic outlook improved and geopolitical tensions eased.
The Bank of Korea’s monthly consumer sentiment index rose to 112.3 this month from 109.2 the previous month, data released yesterday show.
That is the highest since December 2010.
The improvement follows an upgrade in the country’s economic forecast by the IMF to 3.2 percent from 3 percent for this year. South Korea’s agreement with China to move beyond a year-long dispute over deploying a US missile shield has led to optimism that foreign tourists might flock back to South Korea, while exports continue to perform well on global demand.
“Sentiment fell in August and September when North Korea-related risks heightened, and this month’s improvement reflects those tensions moderating,” said Park Sang-woo, an official with the Bank of Korea’s economic survey team.
The sentiment index is the latest data to be released before the central bank’s interest rate decision on Thursday next week, and is likely to support the case for an increase, as some analysts expect.
The gauge was determined by surveying 2,017 households from Nov. 10 to Friday last week on their views about income, spending and the economic outlook. A reading above 100 indicates that people are more optimistic about the economy than the average from 2003 to last year.
The amount of improvement was especially high for the sub-indices on the assessment of the current economy, economic projections, and the outlook for job opportunities, the statement showed.
Households’ inflation expectations over the next 12 months declined to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent the previous month, it showed.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
RSS