The Taiwanese government’s program to promote domestic consumption by issuing NT$3,600 in free shopping vouchers to each citizen is expected to have boosted GDP by between 0.3 percent and 0.5 percent, an economics official said on Thursday.
Hu Chung-ying (胡仲英), deputy minister for the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), said that the projected boost to economic growth is lower than the council’s original forecast of 0.66 percent.
Thanks to the program’s effects, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics has revised its forecast for this year’s contraction upward to 4.04 percent, slightly better than the original estimated contraction of 4.25 percent, Hu said.
Under the program, the country gave out NT$83.2 billion (US$2.53 billion) in vouchers beginning on Jan. 18 this year.
The program is helping to ease the slump, he said.
With about one month to go before the Sept. 30 deadline for spending the vouchers, as of Thursday, there were NT$3.8 billion in vouchers — 4.59 percent — not yet used, the Ministry of Finance said.
CEPD Chairman Chen Tain-jy (陳添枝) has vowed to step down if the voucher scheme failed to boost the local economy by the council’s estimated 0.66 percent. The council is expected to deliver an assessment report conducted by Academia Sinica to the legislature before the end of next month.
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