Nearly half of respondents pointed to new waves of COVID-19 outbreaks as the biggest risk for Taiwan’s economy next year, a survey released on Monday by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) showed.
The survey, which was conducted earlier this month among 18,666 respondents, found that 48.5 percent expected new waves of COVID-19 infections next year to hit the nation’s GDP growth.
According to the poll, 28.4 percent were concerned that escalating US-China trade tensions would affect Taiwan’s economy and 9.4 percent were worried that the reshaping of global supply chains would undercut companies’ profits.
The survey found that 34.3 percent of respondents expected global monetary and fiscal policies to have the biggest effect on Taiwan’s equity market next year, followed by the US stock market at 23.8 percent and stability in cross-strait relations with 20.3 percent, the survey showed.
About 35 percent of respondents expect the TAIEX to fall over the next six months, while 31.2 percent forecast the index to continue its rally, the survey found.
The results compared with 36.1 percent and 33.6 percent respectively who felt so a month earlier, Cathay Financial said.
Regarding the outlook of the job market, 44 percent of respondents said they expect the employment situation to worsen and 16.9 expected a raise in their salary over the next six months, compared with 47 percent and 15.8 percent respectively who felt so a month earlier, the survey showed.
As most consumers used their Triple Stimulus Vouchers in July or last month, consumers’ willingness to make big-ticket purchases or buy durable goods has weakened from one month earlier, Cathay Financial said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained