Public confidence in the economy and equity investment showed signs of stabilization this month, ending five straight months of declines, after the government last week raised its GDP growth forecast for this year, a survey released yesterday by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed.
More people expect the economy to continue to expand from last month, despite a trade war between the US and China, the nation’s largest financial services provider said.
People who expect the economy to deteriorate in the coming six months fell slightly to 48 percent, while 16.5 percent expect an improvement, the monthly survey found.
Thirty percent said the economy would remain unchanged, while 4.9 percent expressed no opinion, according to the online survey, which polled 16,243 respondents between Aug. 1 and Aug. 7.
“Last quarter, the economy grew at the fastest pace in more than three years thanks to strong exports that allowed the government to revise up its GDP growth forecast for this year to 2.69 percent,” Cathay Financial economic research department assistant manager Achilles Chen (陳欽奇) said in a report.
The arrival of the high sales season for technology brands would boost local firms in their supply chains, Chen said.
Taiwan is home to scores of suppliers for Apple Inc, which is expected to unveil its new iPhone models next month.
However, the trade war cast a shadow over public confidence, with 74.8 percent expecting downside risks to build up, while nearly 64 percent expressed worry and 30 percent rated the unease as “serious,” the poll found.
The sentiment could limit appetite for risky assets.
The poll found that 27.8 percent of respondents intend to cut equity investments, while 18.6 percent plan to increase holdings.
The findings make sense, as 40.7 percent believe the TAIEX would enter corrections in the next six months, while 18.3 percent are looking at upward movements, the survey said.
More than one-third of respondents expressed plans to lower their budgets for durable goods or big-ticket items in the coming six months, far more than those who aim to increase spending, it said.
That explained why a majority of the respondents said it is a bad time to sell real estate, it said.
About 72 percent said it is not wise to buy, while 57.9 percent believe it is not a good idea to sell, either, the poll said.
Most of the respondents expect consumer prices to increase 3 to 6 percent in the coming six months, it said.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
RSS