Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-09
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A written report by Taiwan’s Central Bank revealed on Wednesday hinted that the bank could cut interest rates for the third time in a row in a bid to uplift the country’s economy.

Central Bank Governor Perng Fai-nan is scheduled to make a report at the Legislature’s Finance Committee on Thursday. The written form of Perng’s report revealed a day earlier hinted that interest rates could be cut further.

The Central Bank’s two previous interest rate cuts have been helpful to boosting Taiwan’s economy, but influenced by conservative global economic outlook, the country will face strong challenges to achieve economic growth this year, the written report said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-08
By: Central News Agency

Employers in Taiwan remain cautious about hiring in the second quarter of the year amid a sluggish economy, according to a survey released Tuesday by the U.S.-based human resources advisory firm ManpowerGroup.

Taiwan’s net employment outlook for the second quarter is 20 percent after seasonal adjustments, down 7 percentage points from the current quarter and 25 points lower than in the second quarter of 2015, the survey showed.

The survey, which reflects hiring confidence among employers, calculated the net employment outlook by subtracting the percentage of employers anticipating a decline in total employment from the percentage expecting to see an increase.

It found that only 27 percent of employers in Taiwan intend to hire new employees in the second quarter, while 6 percent of employers are looking to cut their workforce. Another 66 percent plan to maintain their current workforce, according to the poll.     [FULL  STORY]

INFLATIONARY GAUGE:Food costs rose 8.45 percent last month year-on-year, with prices of vegetables and fruits rising 80.7% and 14.51% respectively, the DGBAS said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 09, 2016
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) last month surged 2.4 percent year-on-year, driven by a jump in food prices caused by Lunar New Year demand and farm damage from a cold snap, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

The figure represents the highest annual CPI increase for 36 consecutive months, government data showed.

The nation’s CPI last month increased 1.94 percent month-on-month, the DGBAS report showed.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-07
By: Tien Yu-pin and Evelyn Kao, Central News Agency

In a reversal of a previous selling trend earlier this year, foreign institutional investors became net buyers of shares worth NT$23.19 billion (US$708,340 million) on Taiwan’s stock market as of March 4 this year, according to statistics released Monday by Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp.

As of March 4, foreign institutional investors held NT$9.77 trillion in shares on the market, or 38.57 percent of the total value of all listed stocks.

That represented an increase of NT$28.18 billion from the Feb. 26 total. Foreign institutional investors bought a net NT$32.11 billion in shares on Taiwan’s stock market last week, with China Steel Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. their biggest net buying targets by volume.

AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), Inventec Inc. and Siliconware Precision Industries Co. (SPIL) were their biggest net selling targets by volume last week.     [SOURCE]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/03/07
By: Lin Meng-ju and Romulo Huang

Taipei, March 7 (CNA) The Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) has been setting up different industry cluster platforms in the cloud to further promote Taiwan’s exports, BOFT officials said Monday.

The BOFT has so far set up the hosiery industry cluster platform and the glasses manufacturing industry cluster platform in the cloud as part of its efforts to further promote the exports of old economy products,the officials said.

In the face of decreasing exports of the nation, the BOFT has decided to make additional efforts to help domestic industries to promote their overseas markets, in addition to the setting up industry cluster platforms in the cloud, they said.     [FULL  STORY]

FEEBLE:Without diversification of exports, the downward spiral in technology hardware sales looks set to drag on the economy for a record period, experts said

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 08, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

Exports declined 11.8 percent year-on-year to US$17.78 billion last month, shrinking for 13 consecutive months, as demand for all product categories remained weak from trading partners around the world, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

The contraction is poised to outlive the record during the global financial crisis that sank exports in negative territory for 14 straight months, but this time due to the shifting focus from hardware to software competition, of which local exporters failed to take advantage.

“The world’s growth momentum remained feeble thus far, weighing on exports last month,” Department of Statistics Director-General Yeh Maan-tzwu (葉滿足) told a news conference.     [FULL  STORY]