TIER ups forecast for growth

A leading economic think tank in Taiwan yesterday revised upwards its forecast for the nation's economic growth rate to 3.09 percent this year from a previous estimate of 2.88 percent. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said it based its new forecast on the nation's continued export growth this year. While the nation's economy has shown signs of a rebound in the first half of the year, there is still room for improvement in domestic demand and consumer spending, TIER said. The private research institute said it expects exports to grow 7.70 percent this year and imports to rise 6.47 percent. In addition, TIER forecasted that the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) will come in at around 4.74 percent in the third quarter and at around 4.67 percent in the last three months of the year. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Researcg's full-year forecast of 3.09 percent growth in GDP is higher than the government's forecast of 2.55 percent and follows similar upward revisions made by other think tanks on the nation in recent days.