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CEPD disputes KMT claims on nation's economy lagging

A government report released on Friday challenged the opposition's claim that the nation's economic performance has lagged behind that of South Korea.

South Korea's financial misery index last year was 5.7 percent, higher than Taiwan's 4.5 percent, signifying that the economic pressure on South Koreans was higher than that on Taiwanese, a report by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said.

Taiwan outperformed South Korea in terms of economic growth and the level of life satisfaction, the CEPD report comparing the two nations' economic performance over the past 10 years showed.

The report challenges the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) campaign against the Democratic Progressive (DPP) government, in which the KMT claims the economy, under the DPP's rule, has trailed South Korea's. The KMT also has a television campaign ad showing a South Korean criticizing the DPP administration for focusing on politics instead of the economy.

The CEPD report showed that between 1997 and last year, Taiwan's economic growth rate averaged 4.4 percent -- the same level as that of South Korea, while between 2003 and last year, Taiwan's average economic growth rate stood at 4.6 percent -- higher than South Korea's 4.3 percent. For this year, Taiwan's economy is estimated to expand 5.5 percent, compared with South Korea's projected 4.8 percent growth, it said.

Taiwan also reported a higher level of life satisfaction, which is measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), a financial misery index and disposable income.

The report showed that Taiwan's per capita GDP was US$15,271 in 2005 and US$16,030 last year, slightly lower than the US$16,306 and US$18,392 posted by South Korea.

But Taiwan's PPP-converted per capita GDP totaled US$30,687 last year, far higher than South Korea's US$24,084. This is estimated to surge to US$32,490 next year, still ahead of the US$25,840 forecast for South Korea.

As for the financial misery index, Taiwan's consumer price index rose only 0.8 percent over the past decade, lower than South Korea's 3.4 percent. In terms of unemployment -- another component of the financial misery index -- Taiwan's jobless rate dropped to 3.9 percent last year, close to South Korea's 3.5 percent.

The study also showed that although the gap in disposable household income between the richest and poorest families in Taiwan over the past decade rose to 6.01 fold, from 5.41, the gap in South Korea surged sharply to 7.64 fold, from 5.4, over the same period.
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