ECONOMY
M1B grows 5.76%
Last month’s M1B — a measure of the money in circulation in the nation — grew 5.76 percent year-on-year, slower than the previous month’s 5.9 percent, the central bank reported on Friday last week. The M2 — which includes the M1B, time deposits, foreign-currency deposits and mutual funds — also saw annual growth decrease to 3.59 percent from 4.1 percent. The declines were mainly because of net foreign-capital outflows and slower growth in bank loans and investments, the central bank said. For the first seven months, the average annual growth rates of M1B and M2 were 5.33 percent and 3.70 percent respectively.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Equipment billings rise
North America-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment last month reported worldwide billings of US$2.36 billion, international trade group SEMI reported on Thursday last week. The three-month average of worldwide billings for last month was 4.9 percent lower than June’s US$2.48 billion, but up 4.1 percent from US$2.27 billion in the same period last year, the group said. SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said global billings declined for the second month in a row, but the overall semiconductor equipment industry is expected to end this year with strong growth, driven by demand for memory products, high-performance computing chips and automotive electronics chips.
TRADE
TAITRA inks Finland deal
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) and its Finnish counterpart on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Taipei to promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation. Businesses exchanges are expected to increase because of the agreement, TAITRA said. The agreement was signed by TAITRA and Business Finland — the major Finnish funding agency for financial research and innovation — at the Fifth Taiwan-Finland Economic and Trade Dialogue.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last