China’s economy showed signs of stabilizing last month, with retail sales and factory output beating expectations as a power supply crisis appeared to ease, data released yesterday showed.
The recovery in the world’s second-largest economy has been losing steam for much of the year after a swift bounceback from harsh lockdowns to contain COVID-19, with officials earlier citing an “unstable and uneven” economic rebound.
Power outages in the past few months caused by emission reduction targets, the surging price of coal and supply shortages also affected factory production.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, industrial production grew 3.5 percent year-on-year last month, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, as China worked to boost coal production and ease its energy shortage. A survey of economists tipped a 3.0 percent expansion.
NBS spokesman Fu Linghui (傅令輝) said yesterday that the “international environment remains complex and severe” with many uncertainties, adding that China needs to “work harder to maintain economic stability and recovery.”
“While electricity shortages and production cuts hampered output in early October, we don’t think they are a significant problem anymore,” Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said yesterday.
He added that this follows “a range of policy measures to boost coal production and lower coal prices.”
However, economic momentum remained weak last month, he said, “with the real estate downturn weighing on industry and a new wave of COVID outbreaks dampening household consumption.”
Retail sales rose 4.9 percent year-on-year last month, far exceeding forecasts for 3.7 percent, the latest data showed.
Yet observers warn that this could be bogged down by recent containment measures, reimposed following a fresh virus outbreak in the middle of last month that has spread to several regions.
Fu said that “domestic tourist numbers and income growth were below pre-pandemic levels” during the golden week holiday at the start of the month.
The urban unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent.
Weakness in the economy is giving the country’s central bank a headache as it must try to nurture a recovery while at the same time keep a lid on inflation, which is at levels not seen since the mid-1990s.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in