Business confidence last month moved up slightly for all sectors, as business visibility brightened a bit, but the low season limited the pace of improvement, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The sentiment gauge for local manufacturers printed 98.67, up 0.35 points from a revised 98.32 in March, meriting a neutral interpretation given the insignificant change, TIER said.
The number of firms that are positive about their business prospects in the coming six months shed 5.5 percentage points from 40.1 percent to 34.6 percent, while firms with a negative outlook declined 2.5 percentage points from 12.5 percent to 10 percent, and the remaining firms expected no change, it said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwanese tech firms have benefited from strong demand for electronics used in artificial intelligence, but other sectors have not come out of a global slowdown induced by sticky inflation and tight monetary policy, TIER said.
Manufacturers of electrical and machinery equipment see favorable times ahead, but suppliers of base metal and chemical products expect things to remain the same, it said.
Healthy economic data in the US would prompt the US Federal Reserve to hold onto current restrictive monetary policy and curb demand for commodities, TIER said, adding that persisting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and Europe are increasing economic uncertainty.
That explained why shipments of information communication technology products were the only bright spot last month, with a growth of more than twofold, while all other categories faltered into contraction, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month.
The confidence of service providers edged up 0.65 points from a revised 95.05 to 95.7, as people turned cautious after the April 3 earthquake in Hualien, which measured a 7.2 on the Richter scale, and food safety incidents, TIER said.
Fast and deep retreats at the local bourse in the middle of last month weighed on the wealth effect, it said. The conservative patch did not last long, as the TAIEX bounced back late that month and has repeatedly hit record highs this month.
Retailers, hospitality providers, banks, life insurers and securities houses are looking at a business upturn going forward, thanks to the advent of the summer vacation, but wholesale firms believe things would likely be steady, TIER said.
The confidence reading for construction firms and real-estate brokers gained 4.24 points from 103.15 to 107.39, ending two months of declines, it said.
The uptick had to do with an ongoing pickup in housing transactions and the government’s implementation of a public works budget, it added.
The new administration has pledged to speed up reconstruction in Hualien and would introduce programs to shore up strategic industrial sectors, which would be favorable for construction and real-estate firms, TIER said.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS