A woman displays Asustek Computer Inc’s ROG Phone 6D devices at a news conference in Taipei yesterday. The company’s latest smartphones feature MediaTek Inc’s Dimensity 9000+ processors, while their advanced thermal system and improved display are aimed to enhance users’ gaming and visual experience, Asustek said.
Photo: CNA
TOP PERFORMER: The computer and optical products sector’s annual increase in output of 31.84 percent was the largest among Taiwan’s six major industries The industrial production index last month increased 16.06 percent year-on-year, rising for a third consecutive month as local manufacturing continued to boom, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Industrial production measures the change in the value of output produced by the local manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors. Last month’s growth, the largest annual expansion in 34 months, came as increases in manufacturing output, water supply, and electricity and gas production more than offset a retreat in mining output, the ministry said in a report. Manufacturing output, which accounted for 95.39 percent of the industrial production index, also rose for a third consecutive
Two global credit ratings firms lowered their forecasts for China’s property market, as an accelerating slump in home prices hampers the country’s efforts to rescue the sector. S&P Global Ratings now expects residential sales to drop 15 percent this year, more than the 5 percent decline it projected earlier. That would put sales below 10 trillion yuan (US$1.4 trillion), about half the peak in 2021, the ratings company said on Thursday. Fitch Ratings on Wednesday cut its annual sales estimate to a decrease of 15 to 20 percent, worse than an earlier estimate of a 5 to 10 percent drop. The ratings firms’
A US banking giant fired more than a dozen employees for “simulating keyboard activity,” highlighting a battle within productivity-obsessed corporate America to tame a culture of faking work with gizmos such as mouse jigglers. The sackings by Wells Fargo & Co come as employers use sophisticated tools — popularly called “tattleware” or “bossware” — on company-issued devices to monitor productivity in the age of hybrid work that took off after the COVID-19 pandemic. Some workers seek to outsmart them with tools such as mouse movers — which simulate cursor movement, preventing their devices from going into sleep mode and making them appear
POSITIVE OUTLOOK: Taiwan’s exports are improving, with a 20 percent increase in electronic product shipments and a smaller decline in non-electronic shipments Taiwan’s GDP is forecast to grow 4.36 percent year-on-year this year, as the economy is expected to benefit from rising exports and stable private investment, led by semiconductor companies and firms linked to the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) said on Friday. The forecast represents a 0.67 percentage point increase from its previous estimate of 3.69 percent in March, Yuanta said in a report. Major research institutes since April have raised their predictions for Taiwan’s economic growth this year, with the estimated growth ranging from 3 percent to 3.94 percent — higher than the average of 3.14