Shoppers browse shoes in a store at the Shilin market in Taipei. Taiwan yesterday raised its full-year economic growth forecast for 2014 to a three-year-high of 2.98%, citing rising private investment and consumer spending.
Taiwan yesterday raised its full-year economic growth forecast for 2014 to a three-year-high of 2.98%, citing rising private investment and consumer spending.
The government revised the gross domestic product figure upward from an estimate of 2.82% made in February. If achieved it will be the island’s highest growth since 2011 when the economy posted a rise of 4.19%.
Full-year private investment was forecast to increase 4.73%, boosted by an expansion in semiconductor, aviation and telecommunication sectors while consumer spending was expected to grow 2.58%, Taiwan’s Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said. The agency also raised the first quarter growth forecast to 3.14% on-year, up from a 3.04% prediction made in February, although 2013 full-year economic growth was downgraded by 0.02 percentage points to 2.09%.
Growth in Taiwan’s export-reliant economy has been buoyed by a steady economic recovery in developed countries as well as improved domestic consumption. Taiwan’s exports rose 6.2% on-year in April in the third consecutive monthly increase, thanks to growing demands from most major overseas markets, particularly for electronics products such as microchips and solar batteries.
Full-year exports in 2014 were forecast to rise 3.1% to $314.9bn, according to the budgeting agency.