The nation’s economy grew in the second quarter at its fastest pace in the past six quarters, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
GDP expanded 3.84 percent in the April-to-June period compared with the same period last year, an increase of 1.05 percentage points from the 2.79 percent growth forecast by DGBAS in May and marking the highest year-on-year expansion since the fourth quarter of 2012.
The 3.04 percent year-on-year growth in the second quarter was also higher than the 3.14 percent year-on-year growth recorded three months earlier.
“Although uncertainties remain for the global economy, a tailwind for domestic industries has strengthened their competitiveness and kept up growth in the Taiwanese economy,” DGBAS senior executive officer Jasmine Mei (梅家瑗) told a press conference.
The expected launch of Apple Inc’s iPhone 6, a rebound in sales of personal computers and notebook products, and a slowing contraction in the flat-panel market have all played important roles in maintaining the nation’s modest and stable pace of economic recovery, Mei said.
The upward revision may further lead DGBAS to raise its forecast for full-year GDP growth on Aug. 15. In May, DGBAS estimated the economy would grow 2.98 percent this year.
The DGBAS attributed the upward revision to stronger-than-expected expansion in output and private consumption.
Output — exports of merchandise and services — showed a 4.45 percent rise in the second quarter from a year earlier, as the sharp increase of foreign visitors and the strong performance of triangular trade drove up service exports, the DGBAS said in a statement.
The improving employment situation, as well as brisk trading in shares and a rising upward trend on the stock market led to a 2.6 percent year-on-year expansion in private consumption from April to June, the statement said.
Fixed capital formation showed a 6.86 percent expansion in the second quarter compared with the same period last year, lower than the 8.38 percent growth forecast by the DGBAS in May, due to slower-than-expected capital expenditure by the domestic semiconductor sector.
A senior regional economist with Barclays Capital Leong Wai Ho (梁偉豪) said accelerating growth in Taiwan might lead the central bank to reduce its support for the economy in the months ahead, before hiking its policy rates by 0.125 percentage points in the fourth quarter.
Hong Kong-based ANZ Research senior economist Raymond Yeung (楊宇霆) said the stable overall growth in the second quarter reinforced the view that the economy would continue to recover in the second half of this year, on the back of a sustained recovery in advanced economies and China.
However, in the long run, Taiwan is facing the risk of losing its competitiveness in exports, as China — Taiwan’s largest export market — plans to sign a free-trade agreement this year with South Korea, Taiwan’s biggest rival in the export market, Yeung added.
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