Taiwanese manufacturers last month shed a bit of confidence regarding business prospects for the next six months as nontech firms face sharp competition from rivals abroad and despite tech companies continuing to benefit from an artificial intelligence boom, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.
The confidence gauge for local manufacturers lost 0.06 points to 99.1, resulting in a neutral reading, it said.
The nation’s exports fared stronger than a year earlier, driven by the rapid increase in shipments of information communication technology products, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) said, adding that private consumption held resilient.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
“Data showed that the economic recovery is continuing despite volatile TAIEX showings,” Sun said.
The number of firms with rosy views about their business outlook fell from 37.4 percent to 26.7 percent, while firms with negative expectations grew from 18.2 percent to 21.1 percent, TIER’s monthly report showed.
Base metal product vendors are generally looking at a business downturn in the next six month, mainly due to price competition from peers in China as they digest their supply surpluses, Sun said.
Makers of chemical products and machinery equipment have neutral views, with end-market demand recovering at a slow pace, he said.
Machinery equipment and auto part suppliers have to deal with price pressure from the steep depreciation of the yen, which makes Japanese peers more competitive, Sun said.
By contrast, tech firms are more optimistic, thanks to the arrival of the high sales season for technology products, he said.
The business sentiment among local service providers was 99.09, up 0.01 points from one month earlier, but too small to qualify as an uptick, the institute said.
TIER attributed the flat results to the advent of major sales seasons, anniversary promotions for department stores and e-commerce operators, and more national holidays in the second half of the year.
On the other hand, hospitality operators in Kaohsiung and Hualien have taken serious hits from earthquakes and Typhoon Gaemi, the institute said.
The confidence measure among construction firms and real-estate brokers slid 1.03 points to 111.96, as domestic banks turned cautious about mortgage operations, TIER research fellow Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said.
The cautious approach came before the central bank earlier this month asked them to come up with quantitative control measures to slow real-estate lending by Friday next week.
The monetary policymaker is likely to tighten lending terms further to cool the housing market next month, if house loans continue to run wild, Liu said.
House loans last month expanded by 10.82 percent year-on-year to a record high of NT$10.66 trillion (US$335.04 billion), central bank data released yesterday showed.
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