Report Sees Recovery for Global Tech Firms

The global technology industry may have passed a turning point, showing a marked recovery in recent weeks after an extraordinarily deep downturn, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Production of semiconductors, computers, mobile phones and other electronic equipment is still considerably below pre-crisis levels but has rebounded strongly from the end of 2008 and early 2009, the organization says in a report set for publication this week. "Even a few weeks ago, we didn't see the bounce-back in the data," said Sacha Wunsch-Vincent, an OECD economist. "We were still grappling with the size of the downturn. Now, this could be the turning point." The slump was even deeper than previously thought, Mr. Wunsch-Vincent said, particularly in Asia. In Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, production of information technology products at its trough was down around 40 percent from a year earlier, according to the OECD data, which are compiled from national statistics offices. After suffering the steepest fall, Asia has also recovered the most rapidly, with South Korea leading the way, the report shows. There, output in May was down only 3 percent year-on-year.