The government’s business climate monitor last month turned “yellow-red,” cooling from June’s economic boom, as non-tech firms reported shipment disruptions linked to bad weather, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday.
The composite score decreased by 3 points to 35 last month, suggesting that Taiwan’s economy remained in a state of imbalanced recovery, it said.
“Shipments of information and communications technology products remained strong, but exports of non-tech goods took a hit from Typhoon Gaemi,” NDC Economic Department Director Chiu Chiu-ying (邱秋瑩) said.
Photo: CNA
The council uses a five-color spectrum to describe the nation’s economic state, with “red” signifying a boom, “green” indicating stable growth and “blue” suggesting sluggishness. A dual-color reading means the economy is shifting gears to a better or worse state.
Of the nine component measures, exports fell by 2 points and industrial production decreased by 1 point, the council’s latest report showed.
Heavy rainfall disrupted the production and shipments of non-tech goods, but exports of electronics were unaffected, the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month.
Dismissing concerns about the state of the economy, Chiu said the monitor would turn “red” again going forward as other indicators lent support to economic growth.
The index of leading indicators, which seeks to project the economic landscape in the coming six months, picked up by 1.13 points to 105.11, as the indices on export orders, imports of semiconductor equipment, total floor area of new housing starts, labor accession rates, money supply and other gauges all increased, Chiu said.
The leading indicators have climbed for nine months in a row, with a cumulative increase of 6.57 points, Chiu said.
Likewise, the index of coincident indicators, which reflects the current economic situation, rose by 1.04 points to 105.4, with all constituents, including exports, industrial output, average monthly overtime hours and power consumption, moved upward, Chiu said, adding that the index rose for 15 straight months.
In other news, the consumer confidence index this month increased by 2.39 points to 77.75, as Taiwanese became more optimistic about the economy, household incomes and the job market, a survey by National Central University showed yesterday.
The sub-index on consumer prices increased by 4.47 points to 42.88, as products became more expensive due to bad weather, said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development.
The stock and housing markets continued to boom, creating a sense of wealth inflation for households, Wu said.
However, the reading on the purchases of durable goods, noticeably real estate, dropped by 2.34 points to 109.33 after domestic banks moved to restrain their mortgage operations to avoid angering the central bank.
The monetary policymaker has voiced concern about a potential overconcentration on real-estate lending and is likely to introduce more credit controls next month after its board meeting on Sept. 19.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the