taipei july 5 reuters  taiwans economy ministry said on tuesday it was cautious but not pessimistic about the islands economic prospects in the second half of the year pointing to strong exports despite a swoon in share prices on its stock market after a strong performance through 2020 and 2021 taiwan assets are being dumped as investors start to worry that rising interest rates around the world are going to hurt economic growth for the exportdependent island a major producer of semiconductors the benchmark index twii has dropped 21 this year completely unwinding 2021 gains the currency has lost 7 on the dollar the ministry said in a statement that the global economic situation in the second half of the year does have various variables that need watching but taiwan industrys fundamentals are good as are exports the ministry of economic affairs maintains a cautious but not pessimistic view of taiwans economic development in the second half of the year which is not affected by shortterm fluctuations in the stock market it added the ministry said both exports and export orders in may were positive and taiwans chip industry is a world leader which will help support growth recent fluctuations in taiwans stock market are mainly affected by uncertainty in the international environment it added taiwan releases preliminary second quarter economic growth data at the end of the month