The government’s business climate monitor last month signaled “green” for the fourth straight month as the nation’s economic recovery held firm, thanks to robust demand for both tech and non-tech products, the National Development Council said yesterday.
The gauge gained two points to 30, the highest in nine-and-a-half years, and was set to climb higher this month, the council said.
“The latest data suggest that the recovery is not only stable, but will gain further traction,” council research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a media briefing in Taipei.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
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 gauge is only two points away from the boom values of 32 to 37, aided by better manufacturing, restaurant and retail sales, the council said.
The remaining constituents stayed in a healthy zone.
Wu said that the monitor might signal “yellow-red” this month, as there is cause for pessimism, based on the trends of all economic bellwethers.
Demand for 5G wireless communication and new technology applications remained strong, while non-tech products showed signs of rebounding, explaining why most sectors reported an upturn in business, Wu said.
The annual “Singles’ Day” shopping season that culminated on Nov. 11 helped boost retail sales in Taiwan, she said.
The index of leading indicators, which aims to forecast the economic situation for the next six months, increased 1.41 percent to 107.45, as all sub-indices registered positive cyclical movements, the report said.
That suggests that recovery is broad-based, rather than being limited to tech sectors as previously, Wu said.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic state, gained 1.16 percent to 104.21, also drawing support from all sub-indices, the report showed.
Despite the improvement, the COVID-19 pandemic would continue to pose uncertainty for the global economy next year, Wu said.
If the pandemic escalates in Europe and the US, Taiwan cannot stay immune given its heavy dependence on exports, she added.
Separately yesterday, the council set its economic growth target for Taiwan next year at 3.8 percent to 4.2 percent, driven mainly by growth in external demand, private consumption and domestic investment.
The high end of the council’s growth target is just more than the 3.83 percent the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics forecast on Nov. 27.
The council also expects the nation’s GDP per capita next year to be between US$30,038 and US$30,145, the consumer price index to rise by 1 to 1.5 percent and the unemployment rate to be 3.6 to 3.8 percent, according to a statement on its Web site.
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS