East Asia Today

Highlights of a longer note on fiscal conditions in Korea and Taiwan. Consumer confidence in Korea in September remained elevated. Taiwan's IP growth slowed in August, but that follows the surge seen in the previous 6M. Retail sales growth is stable at around 5% YoY.

Paul Cavey

Sep 23, 2026 • 2 min read

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Region – lands of fiscal plenty

In many advanced economies, governments are drowning in debt. But in Korea and Taiwan they are floating up on the flood in revenue generated by the semiconductor boom. There is so much money that both economies plan looser fiscal policy while also paying back debt.

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East Asia Today

Some highlights of August country-level data for China's trade in autos, rare earths, semiconductors, batteries, industrial robots and solar. Also, data from Taiwan showing another rise in export orders, and the unemployment rate remaining pinned at 25-year lows.

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East Asia Today

An update on China's capital goods imports. They are dominated by the AI-tech trade, but underlying capital goods imports haven't fallen in the way that the weakness of FAI data would suggest. That AI tech trade isn't over yet, with Korea's 20 day exports for September rising strongly again.