After three consecutive quarters of decline, the economy rebounded in the second quarter with year-on-year growth of 0.69 percent, supported by better-than-expected exports, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The 0.69 percent growth was higher than the 0.48 percent growth the DGBAS forecast in May.
“By the latest data, we could say that the economy is stabilizing slowly. Some local industries showed a positive outlook, such as the electronic components industry,” DGBAS section head Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a news conference.
Photo: Cheng Chi-fang, Taipei Times
Exports of electronic goods increased by 1.9 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, ending four quarters of contraction, thanks to a recovery in the semiconductor industry, the statistics agency said in a statement.
A sharp decline in the number of Chinese tourist in the second quarter had no obvious impact on the economy as tourists from other nations, such as Japan and South Korea, filled the gap, Wang said.
After price adjustments, real exports, including exported services and goods, increased by 0.65 percent in the second quarter, better than the agency’s 0.29 percent growth forecast, DGBAS data showed.
Private consumption in the second quarter rose 1.05 percent year-on-year, led by a 4.71 percent increase in new car purchases on the back of government subsidies.
However, capital formation — the net additions of equipment, buildings and other intermediate goods — declined 3.11 percent last quarter from the previous year, as the appreciation of the yen dragged down local capital formation, Wang said.
Nearly one-third of the nation’s machinery is imported from Japan, she added.
By sector, GDP growth in the second quarter was led by the output of financial and insurance companies, which climbed 1.6 percent from a year earlier, while manufacturing sector remained sluggish on muted demand with output falling 0.12 percent year-on-year, the smallest decline in five quarters, according to DGBAS.
The second quarter’s mild economic growth has not changed the agency’s full-year GDP estimate of 1.06 percent, Wang said.
In the first half of this year, GDP increased slightly by 0.01 percent from the previous year and the economy might remain weak in the second half due to various macroeconomic uncertainties including terrorist attacks, Brexit impacts and the rise of protectionism, Wang said.
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