December is a busy season due to students shopping for items before traveling abroad to study, prompting a jump in online sales of electronic products.

Taiwan-based fabless chip vendor MediaTek Inc. announced Friday that it had reached a deal with U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. under which the two companies will allow each other to utilize technology covered by their respective patent portfolios.

Taiwan's GreTai Securities Market (GTSM), commonly known as the over-the-counter (OTC) exchange, launched yesterday the online trading service for international bond investment.

Taiwan's currency has strengthened against the South Korean won, the island's central bank said, adding that the two economies compete with one another for exports.

Taiwan's dollar dropped for a third day, its longest losing streak of the month, after the central bank said it will intervene if irregular factors cause excessive currency volatility. Bonds were little changed.

Taiwan's current-account surplus widened in the third quarter as imports declined. The surplus expanded to US$8.24 billion in the three months to Sept. 30 from a revised US$2.06 billion a year earlier, the central bank said in a statement in Taipei.

Asia's airline industry is pulling out of a slump sparked by the global recession with signs passenger numbers are rising, a regional body said Friday, but there were warnings a rebound will be slow.

The Merrill Lynch Group yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan's gross domestic product for this year to a minus 3.4 growth rate from an earlier forecast of a negative 5 percent.

China's yuan is undervalued by 20 percent, a Reuters poll shows on Friday, highlighting the case of President Barack Obama who this week pressed Beijing to allow the currency to rise.

Pacific Investment Management Co., manager of the world's biggest bond fund, said China's yuan, South Korea's won and the Singapore dollar offer “attractive value” because central banks need to counter inflation.