Forward-looking‧Professional‧International 
December 2017  
US tax reform adds fuel to American economic growth engines
Taiwan's growth in November exports is exceptionally strong
The US and European economy both have had in recovering mode quarter by quarter this year. The Cabinet Office of Japan recently revised its estimate in growth in 2017 as well as forecast in growth in 2018 by 0.4 percentage points given its current longest recovery track after the global financial crisis. China's consumption and investment continue to perform well with respect to its supply side structural reform. The steadily increasing global demand has helped Taiwan's economy pick up its growth in exports in November 2017.
Taiwan's exports in November 2017 increased significantly by only 14.03% compared with the same month of 2016 that would also be the 14th month of positive growth in exports. Regarding imports, Taiwan's imports in November 2017 increased by 9.04% compared with imports in November 2016. Exports and imports grew by 13.06% and 12.59% y-o-y respectively from January 1st till the end of November this year, Taiwan's exports and imports gave a trade surplus of US$ 51.74 billion or an increase by 15.26% on a y-o-y basis during this period.
Taiwan's consumer price index (CPI) went up by only 0.35% in November 2017 compared with the same month of previous year. The core inflation rate stood at 1.30% in November, 2017. In addition, the wholesale price index (WPI) moved up by 1.57% in November 2017 on the year-on-year basis. On the cumulative basis, the CPI and WPI went up by 0.57% and 0.95% respectively compared with the same period of last year.
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Wage, trade, pollution changes coming
A total of 48 new laws and regulations are to take effect in 2018, ranging from a lower tax exemption threshold for foreign e-commerce Web sites to increases in the minimum wage and tighter environmental regulations. The custom tax exemption threshold for goods purchased on foreign e-commerce platforms is to be lowered from NT$3,000 to NT$2,000. The change is to ensure equal taxation, because goods sold on local e-commerce platforms are levied according to national laws. The monthly minimum wage is to increase from NT$21,009 to NT$22,000, benefiting 1.66 million workers, and the minimum hourly pay is to rise from NT$133 to NT$140, benefiting 390,000 workers. (Source: Taipei Times)

Promoting IT service industry cooperation between Taiwan and Japan to expand the intelligent manufacturing market (Source: MOEA)
Taiwan Economic Research Monthly
Opportunities for the Digital Economy and Cultural and Creative Industries
International cultural and creative industry development and its challenges
Evaluating the cultural and creative industries (CCI) in five major regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East with contributions of 1.1 to 3.3% to GDP aimed to analyse the numerical performance of cultural and creative industries in the world and in UK, Japan, South Korea and China. This article then further discussed the development trend of CCI as well as the market, policies, emerging opportunities and challenges faced by the cultural and creative industries in response to the changes of new media and digital economy
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