SHIFTING TRENDS: Artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications are to offset slowing demand for smartphones as the market becomes satiated, analysts said

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 21, 2018
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Taiwan’s economy is likely to hold steady this quarter on the back of a favorable global landscape, but the outlook for private investment and consumption is dull, the Germany-based Ifo Institute said in its latest quarterly World Economic Survey.

The Munich-based institute arrived at the observations for the first quarter of this year after surveying 1,199 experts in 120 nations.

The confidence gauge for the global economic climate rose from 17.1 to 26 quarter-on-quarter, the highest in more than 10 years and the fifth consecutive increase, according to the survey released on Wednesday last week.

The rosy view might extend into the first half of the year with the six-month outlook gauge printing 23.9, up from 16.9 three months earlier, the survey said.    [FULL  STORY]