The service sector's output for the first six months of the year accounted for 70.5 percent of GDP -- breaking the 70 percent mark for the first time in history, the Council for Economic Planning and Development reported yesterday.
The figure is forecast to rise further for the whole year, marking a noticeable jump from the 68.72 percent level last year and 60.15 percent for 1995, the report said.
The council report added that this demonstrated the economy is increasingly becoming a "lean and mean" and "environmentally friendly" service-based economy.
According to statistics compiled by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), losses arising from "natural resources consumption" and "living environment damage" in 2003 amounted to NT$13.5 billion and NT$76.8 billion.
The two ratios combined as a percentage of net national product dropped to 1.03 percent in 2003 from 1.27 percent in 2001.
Taiwan's "green GDP" -- arrived at by subtracting losses arising from environmental damage and resource consumption from traditional GDP -- amounted to NT$8.64 trillion last year, up by NT$68.6 billion from 2002, the DGBAS tallies show.
Council officials attributed the decrease in consumption of natural resources to a reduction in the importance of energy-consuming sectors.
This change had driven domestic industries to increasingly become "lean, healthy and environmentally friendly," the officials said.
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