The government’s business climate monitor signaled “yellow-red” for a second straight month in January, as strong demand for electronic and non-technology products ramped up business at local suppliers, the National Development Council said yesterday.
The gauge gained three points to 37, the highest in a decade, NDC research director Wu Ming-huei (吳明蕙) said, adding that the reading is only 1 point away from “overheating,” which might happen later this quarter in light of improving economic barometers.
“The demand and production fronts are gathering momentum across tech and non-tech sectors, as the economic landscape brightens at home and abroad,” Wu said.
Photo: CNA
The council uses a five-color system to portray the nation’s economic picture, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting overheating and “blue” signaling a recession. Dual colors indicate a transition toward a recession or a boom.
Wu said that the gauge might in the next few months turn “red,” as the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last month projected double-digit percentage increases for exports through the first half of this year, partly due to a low base last year.
Wu said that the “yellow-red” signal was due to frontloading demand ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, when most Taiwanese companies took one week off.
That explained why exports and imports of electronics and machinery equipment were upgraded from “green” to “yellow-red,” the council said.
Meanwhile, revenue measures for wholesale, retail and restaurant operators turned from “yellow-red” to “red,” it said.
The positive trend is to continue as COVID-19 vaccines are more widely available, Wu said.
However, the public health crisis remains the biggest uncertainty, he added.
The index of leading indicators, which predicts the economic situation for the following six months, grew 0.78 percent to 107.07, as almost all subindices registered positive cyclical movements except the index on new construction floor space, the council said.
The US government is planning a new stimulus package of US$1.9 trillion that would help people and firms in the US affected by the pandemic and facilitate the country’s economic recovery, Wu said, adding that Taiwanese exports would likely benefit from that.
The index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic state, grew 1.07 percent to 105.5, as all of its seven measures increased, the council said.
Local tech firms would continue to benefit from ongoing global shortages of electronic and vehicle parts, Wu 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