Domestic investment falls

The value of domestic investments this year is expected to account for 17.3 percent of GNP, the lowest in 16 years, according to statistics released yesterday by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS). The domestic investments by the public and the private sector this year are estimated to reach NT$1.7 trillion, which is NT$340 billion less the average of NT$2.1 trillion in the past five years, it said. According to the DGBAS, the ratio of domestic investments to GNP in the 1980s was 21.9 percent on average. It was 24.7 percent during the years between 1992 and 1996, and dropped to an average 23.6 percent between 1997 and 2000.