STOCKING UP:
While rising inventories can reflect confidence, overbooking has served as an early warning sign, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, analysts said
By Crystal Hsu
/ Staff reporter
Taiwan’s manufacturing activity last month accelerated to its fastest pace in nearly five years, driven by sustained demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related products, although economists warned that rising inventories in some sectors might signal emerging imbalances beneath the economy’s robust expansion, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 1.1 points to 61.4 from 60.3 in April, marking the eighth consecutive month of expansion above 50 and the highest reading since September 2021.“The latest PMI data indicate that Taiwan’s economy remains in a strong expansion phase,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei.
