The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday trimmed its economic growth outlook for developing Asia this year from 7.1 percent to 7 percent, but kept its forecast for Taiwan unchanged at 6.2 percent, as the nation has fared in line with expectations.
“The advent of the Omicron virus variant is causing renewed uncertainty... Recovery efforts will have to take these developments into consideration,” ADB acting chief economist Joseph Zveglich Jr said.
The latest revision came three months after the projection released in September.
Forecasts for this year have been revised slightly downward for all sub-regions except central Asia, the Manila-based organization said.
The main risk to growth remains a resurgence in COVID-19 infections, the economist said, adding that new outbreaks last quarter slowed the pace.
The average number of daily cases worldwide rose to almost 573,000 on Nov. 30, from 404,000 on Oct. 15, it said.
The full vaccination rate in developing Asia has increased to 48.7 percent, but the region lags behind the US’ 58.1 percent and the EU’s 67.2 percent.
Rates of fully vaccinated people also vary widely within the region, from 91.9 percent in Singapore to 2.2 percent in Papua New Guinea.
East Asia’s growth outlook has been cut by 0.1 percentage points to 7.5 percent for this year and 5 percent for next year, mainly due to mild downward adjustments in the forecast for China’s economy, which is now expected to grow 8 percent this year and 5.3 percent next year, ADB said.
Economic developments in Taiwan have been broadly in line with expectations, ADB said, keeping its growth prediction at 6.2 percent for Taiwan this year and 3 percent next year.
Economic conditions in Taiwan are expected to improve this quarter, as the government’s new stimulus program should bolster consumer confidence and private expenditure, it said.
GDP growth reached 6.7 percent in the first three quarters, it said.
Private investment was the main growth driver last quarter, expanding 28 percent year-on-year, as major semiconductor firms and related supply chain companies stepped up capital expenditure and investment plans for 5G technology, it said.
Exports continued to surge to meet strong global demand for electronics, although they were outpaced by imports, it added.
Inflation picked up 1.8 percent in the first 10 months of this year, mainly reflecting spikes in petroleum products and food prices, it said.
ADB raised its forecast for Taiwan’s inflation for this year from 1.5 percent to 2 percent, as recent price movements turned out faster than expected.
The regional banking body expects Taiwan’s consumer prices to increase by 1.1 percent next year. Inflation in the region would remain manageable at 2.1 percent this year and 2.7 percent next year, ADB said.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
BRAVE NEW WORLD: Nvidia believes that AI would fuel a new industrial revolution and would ‘do whatever we can’ to guide US AI policy, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Tuesday said he is ready to meet US president-elect Donald Trump and offer his help to the incoming administration. “I’d be delighted to go see him and congratulate him, and do whatever we can to make this administration succeed,” Huang said in an interview with Bloomberg Television, adding that he has not been invited to visit Trump’s home base at Mar-a-Lago in Florida yet. As head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, Huang has an opportunity to help steer the administration’s artificial intelligence (AI) policy at a moment of rapid change.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) quarterly sales topped estimates, reinforcing investor hopes that the torrid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending would extend into this year. The go-to chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported a 39 percent rise in December-quarter revenue to NT$868.5 billion (US$26.35 billion), based on calculations from monthly disclosures. That compared with an average estimate of NT$854.7 billion. The strong showing from Taiwan’s largest company bolsters expectations that big tech companies from Alphabet Inc to Microsoft Corp would continue to build and upgrade datacenters at a rapid clip to propel AI development. Growth accelerated for
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
RSS