Taiwan Brain Trust yesterday accused the government of manipulating economic figures to deceive the public, saying that the state of the nation’s economy was not as good as it claimed.
“The impressive numbers released by the government cannot hide the fact that Taiwan is still in a difficult economic situation,” former vice premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), who is chairman of the think tank, told an economic forum.
Referring to last year’s ostensibly impressive economic growth of 9.98 percent, Wu said it was important to keep in mind that this comes from a low comparison base the previous year, when the economy contracted by 2.5 percent.
Although the unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 6.13 percent to 4.73 percent in November, this does not include an estimated 150,000 unemployed people who are not actively looking for a job, he said.
The administration also boasts that salary levels have increased, but 3.6 million workers still have a monthly salary of less than NT$30,000, Wu said.
Government officials say the nation’s finances are healthy, but they do not appear to be telling the truth, he said.
Last year, public debt — not including potential debt and short-term government deficits — represented 32.9 percent of GDP, he said.
“If you include then, Taiwan’s public debt has reached 147 percent [of GDP], which is not healthy at all,” he said.
Chen Jinji (陳錦稷), a research fellow at Taiwan Brain Trust, said the nation’s financial situation remained in dire straits, adding that the Control Yuan had reprimanded the Ministry of Finance for underestimating the magnitude of public debt and ordered better regulations on government budgets.
Every time the administration borrows money for special budgets, the amount is not included in calculating public debt, he said.
“The administration should tackle this deficit with courage and map out a medium and long-term policy to deal with it,” he said.
Taiwan Thinktank chairman Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said that while it was understandable that a government would massage numbers to create a sense of optimism, it was unforgivable for a government to set policies based on erroneous figures.
“Statistics do not lie, but a liar knows how to manipulate statistics,” he said. “I hope the administration will admit its mistakes and that the public will not fall into the trap set by the government.”
He said his calculations, which were based on official data, showed the administration had overestimated the national income by NT$1.14 trillion (US$39.18 billion) and that such growth was generated at the cost of debt and deficits.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS