Survey Shows Gloomier Outlook for Taiwan

Taiwan’s Finance Ministry won’t publish results of a survey showing increasing pessimism among the island’s businesses, the Commercial Times reported, citing unidentified ministry officials. The survey of more than 2,000 companies and factories in the manufacturing and services industries showed businesses are becoming gloomier about the island’s economic growth prospects in the fourth quarter, the paper said. Separately, Finance Ministry Secretary Hsieh Fa-da said the survey will be kept for internal reference because its quality “still has room for improvement.” Taiwan’s currency weakened 6% against the U.S. dollar since October, driving down the stock market’s key index by nearly 34% in the same period to a five-year low.