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.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS