Economic Recovery is Underway, According to some Forecasters

Positive declarations of economic recovery!! Global sales of semiconductors are forecast to increase 1.8% to $141 billion by the end of 2002 and increase to 20% for 2003 and 2004, according to a respected leading trade group's annual report issued on Wednesday. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) annual report also forecast that worldwide sales of semiconductors would increase by 19.8% in 2003 to $169 billion; increase 22% in both 2004 and 2005 to $206 billion. Sales in the Asia Pacific region are forecast to grow by 30%. "The long-awaited recovery is under way," according to W.J. "Jerry" Sanders III, Chairman of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. "We believe the next several years will see steady growth following the industry's steepest-ever decline in 2001. Worldwide semiconductor sales in 2004 are now projected to exceed the peak revenues of 2000, a year in which there was a "bubble that distorted the industry's compound annual growth rate, pushing it above 16%. We believe that compound annual growth rates in the range of 8% to 10% will be the norm going forward over the longer term," he said. "This will represent a sea change for our industry. We can no longer count on the proverbial rising tide that lifts all boats."