The government’s business climate monitor last month flashed “green,” as the economy emerged from five months of slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Development Council said yesterday.
Almost all component measures registered positive cyclical movements except for the nonfarm payroll, which remained sluggish, council research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a news conference in Taipei.
“The latest data suggest the economy finally resumed stable growth after the pace of uptick grew increasingly evident,” Wu said.
The total score gained 5 points to 26, catapulting the monitor to the growth zone of 23 to 31.
The council uses a five-color system to portray the nation’s economic state, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting overheating and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual colors mean it is in transition.
The council is to continue closely monitoring the economy at home and abroad to see if the growth is sustainable or just an isolated episode, Wu said.
The worst is over, but uncertainty warrants continued caution, Council Deputy Minister Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂) said.
Many are concerned about a potential resurgence of COVID-19 infections in the fall and winter, Cheng said, adding that the US presidential election and US-China trade dispute could shake up the economy.
The index of leading indicators, used to gauge the economic outlook in the coming six months, rose 1.72 percent to 104.67, bolstered by better export orders, manufacturing sentiment, labor accession rates and new construction floor space, the council said.
The sub-index on semiconductor equipment imports was the only measure that posted negative cyclical movement from one month earlier, it said.
Altogether, the leading indicators’ series have picked up for the past five months, which is a positive sign, Wu said.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic situation, edged up 0.71 percent for the third consecutive month to 100.77, the council said.
Exports, industrial output and power consumption, as well as wholesale, retail and restaurant revenues, showed improvement, but employment and machinery equipment imports lost some traction, it said.
Although the coincident indicators’ series climbed 1.55 percent for three months in a row, the magnitude of increase was not strong enough to suggest a concrete recovery, Wu said.
It is more urgent that local firms upgrade and adapt to new business models in the post-pandemic era so that economic activity can recover better momentum, Cheng said.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
The number of Taiwanese working in the US rose to a record high of 137,000 last year, driven largely by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) rapid overseas expansion, according to government data released yesterday. A total of 666,000 Taiwanese nationals were employed abroad last year, an increase of 45,000 from 2023 and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) showed. Overseas employment had steadily increased between 2009 and 2019, peaking at 739,000, before plunging to 319,000 in 2021 amid US-China trade tensions, global supply chain shifts, reshoring by Taiwanese companies and
RSS