Taiwan

Corporate earnings will continue to slump into the first half of 2009 amid the first simultaneous recessions in the U.S., Japan and Europe since World War II, Bloomberg reported on analyst estimates. While profits will rise 4.3 percent for the full year in the U.S., earnings in Europe are projected to decline for all of 2009 and analysts predict worsening reports out of Asia because the recession hasn’t fully hit there yet. Earnings at European oil companies may drop 21 percent in 2009, compared with a 4.7 percent gain last year, according to estimates.

The Taiwan government said Monday it plans to provide 200 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$6.1 billion) in financial aid for struggling large companies, with memory-chip maker Nanya Technology Corp. aiming to submit a proposal to the government for assistance as soon as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported. Taiwan's export-dependent economy is feeling the sharp slowdown in global trade, and the island's producers of dynamic random access memory chips are facing the sector's worst downturn ever.