Taiwan’s business climate monitor last month turned “yellow-blue” for the second straight month as major economic barometers stayed in “slowdown mode” due to economic headwinds abroad, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The overall score gained 1 point to 18, as imports of electrical and machinery equipment displayed positive movements, the council said, adding that whether the rise would continue this month is uncertain.
“Both leading and coincident indicators continued to decline, although the pace eased,” NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
The general downtrend suggests the economy remains soft and warrants close attention, Wu said.
The council uses a five-color system to indicate the state of the nation’s economy, with “green” signifying steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” reflecting a recession. Dual colors indicate a shift to a stronger or weaker state.
Active purchases of capital equipment by local semiconductor manufacturers enabled the business monitor to steer away from the recession path, the official said.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmakers, supplying 60 percent of advanced chips used in high-performance computing, flagship smartphones and data centers.
The Christmas season in the West and the Lunar New Year in Asian countries would support sales of consumer electronic products, although high inflation and monetary tightening could curtail demand, the council said.
The index of leading indicators, which aims to predict the economic situation in the coming six months, weakened 0.97 percent to 95.63, as all sub-indices registered negative cyclical movements except for the reading on imports of semiconductor equipment, the council said.
Major local semiconductor firms said they are also taking a hit from order cancellations and inventory adjustments by global clients, but the magnitude is limited.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic situation, decreased 1.34 percent to 95.05, as all comprising gauges fell, with the exception of non-farm payroll, it said.
The end of graduation season and an ongoing recovery in tourism sectors shored up hiring activity, it said.
Service providers catering to domestic demand could see business improvement, but operators linked to exports and financial markets are looking at a cold winter and spring, it said.
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS