The composite index of monitoring indicators compiled by the National Development Council (NDC) last month totaled 20 points, unchanged from the previous month and flashing “yellow-blue” for the second consecutive month, indicating that the economy has bottomed out as external demand continued to gain steam despite weakness in domestic trade, the council said on Friday.
Concurrently, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the economy’s direction in the following six months, rose for a third consecutive month and the index of coincident indicators, which tracks the current pace of economic activity, increased for the ninth consecutive month, the council said in a report.
The council gauges economic health levels and signals them using a five-color index, with “blue” signaling recession, “green” suggesting steady growth and “red” indicating overheating. Dual colors mean economic health levels are in transition.
Photo: CNA
“Benefiting from rising business opportunities related to the applications of emerging technologies, export performance turned strong last month compared with the previous month,” the council said.
“However, due to a weak global end-market and firms being relatively late in stocking up inventory before the Lunar New Year holiday, the performance of the wholesale, retail and food-and-beverage sectors shifted into lower gear last month.”
Among the index’s nine components, the sub-index on customs-cleared exports score increased by 2 points and flashed “red,” compared with “green” the previous month, but the sub-index gauging sales of trade and food services saw its score decrease by 2 points with a “blue” light, downgrading from “green” a month ago, the council’s data showed.
There were no changes in the light signals of the other seven components, including money supply, the TAIEX, non-agricultural employment, industrial production, manufacturing sales and imports of capital equipment, the report said.
Looking ahead, the council expects export momentum to remain strong on the recovery of global trade and predicts domestic investment would continue gathering steam thanks to demand for advanced semiconductor technologies, net zero carbon emissions and digital transformation.
Meanwhile, private consumption is expected to remain healthy on the back of stable employment, rising minimum wages, higher income tax deductions and a stock market boom, it said.
However, close observation is warranted on the impacts on the global economy from major central banks’ monetary policy changes, as well as geopolitical risks such as the US-China rivalry, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas conflict and the attacks on cargo ships in the Red Sea, the council said.
Last month, the leading indicators index increased by 0.45 percent month-on-month to 100.04. The index has risen for the third consecutive month with the pace of growth accelerating sequentially, indicating that the economy is expected to continue gaining momentum.
At the same time, the index of coincident indicators increased by 0.58 percent to 100.97, rising for the ninth straight month as firms’ inventory depletion gradually comes to an end amid recovering export growth, manufacturing output and electricity consumption, the report said.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
RSS