The government’s business climate monitor last month flashed “green” for the third consecutive month due to strong exports, which in turn benefited electrical and machinery equipment imports, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The total score of the nine constituent readings gained 1 point from the previous month, increasing to 30.
This indicates a state of steady growth, thanks to aggressive spending of global technology titans on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan is home to the world’s major suppliers of advanced chips, high-end servers, storage and memory devices.
“The nation’s exports would thrive, with the landscape looking bright and clear for AI applications,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei.
The council uses a five-color system to indicate the state of the nation’s economy, with “green” meaning steady growth, “red” suggesting a boom and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual colors suggest a transition to a stronger or weaker state.
Outbound shipments last month expanded 18.9 percent year-on-year to US$41.82 billion, with information and communications technology products more than doubling, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month.
The uptrend is expected to gather steam this quarter, with more product categories to emerge from a slowdown, the ministry said.
Similarly, the tracker on stock price movements showed a boom signal, as the TAIEX rallied above the 20,000-point mark, prompting foreign portfolio managers to lower their holdings and lock in profit, the NDC report said.
The index of leading indicators, which forecasts the economic condition in the following six months, climbed 0.32 percent month-on-month to 101.5, as readings on export orders, money supply, share prices, labor accession rate and business confidence gained headway.
The improvements came even though imports of semiconductor equipment and construction floor space declined, the NDC said.
Local firms remained generally cautious about capital spending on concerns over stubborn inflation in the US and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic situation, rose 0.64 percent to 101.45, as all constituent readings on electricity use, overtime hours, and wholesale, retail and restaurant revenues picked up, the council said.
Local firms would benefit further from the positive technology product cycle, but risks regarding restrictive monetary policy in the US, volatile geopolitical tensions and US-China trade disputes warrant caution, the NDC said.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
Micron Technology Inc is a driving force pushing the US Congress to pass legislation that would put new export restrictions on equipment its Chinese competitors use to make their chips, according to people familiar with the matter. A US House of Representatives panel yesterday was to vote on the “MATCH Act,” a bill designed to close gaps in restrictions on chipmaking equipment. It would also pressure foreign companies that sell equipment to Chinese chipmaking facilities to align with export curbs on US companies like Lam Research Corp and Applied Materials Inc. The bill targets facilities operated by China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings’ planned acquisition of Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations has yet to enter the formal review stage, as regulators await supplementary documents, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday. Acting FTC Chairman Chen Chih-min (陳志民) told the legislature’s Economics Committee that although Grab submitted its application on March 27, the case has not been officially accepted because required materials remain incomplete. Once the filing is finalized, the FTC would launch a formal probe into the deal, focusing on issues such as cross-shareholding and potential restrictions on market competition, Chen told lawmakers. Grab last month announced that it would acquire
RSS