Taiwan’s economy expanded a mild 1.54 percent last quarter from a year earlier, thanks to government spending and private investment, as the COVID-19 pandemic affected consumer activity, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The growth rate missed the agency’s forecast in February by 0.26 percentage points and was the lowest in 15 quarters, as Taiwan was not spared the impact of the pandemic, which has infected 3.2 million people globally and killed more than 228,000.
“The coronavirus has hurt the economy harder than expected after spreading across Europe and the US,” National Income Section head Yu Ming-chun (游敏君) said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Asked about forecasts for full-year growth, Yu said the agency would give an update later this month.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate shrank 5.91 percent, suggesting heightened risks of a technical recession if the gauge stays in negative territory for two straight quarters.
The quarterly report indicated that government expenditure increased 3.67 percent annually during the January-to-March period, contributing 0.48 percentage points to GDP growth in the first quarter, while capital formation rose 3.13 percent, adding 0.73 percentage points to GDP.
The “mild outbreak” in Taiwan allowed local manufacturers to maintain normal operations and win order transfers from foreign peers that were hit by temporary shutdowns, the report said.
That helped support a 3.67 percent increase in exports and a 3.13 gain in imports in the quarter, adding 0.86 percentage points to net external demand, beating expectations, Yu said.
Major technology companies are ramping up production to meet demand for next-generation consumer electronics, but non-tech companies are struggling amid a crude oil price rout, the DGBAS said.
Service-focused firms bore the brunt of the coronavirus outbreak, as people stayed home to avoid infections, it said.
Private consumption dropped 0.97 percent, contrary to a projected 0.75 percent increase, despite an 8.18 percent pickup in new vehicle sales and a 16.52 percent jump in e-commerce sales, the report said.
Social distancing and travel restrictions wreaked havoc on restaurants, hotels and tourism-related sectors.
Listed hospitality providers saw revenue tumble 26.21 percent in the first quarter, while restaurant sales weakened 6.59 percent from a year earlier, the report said, adding that outbound tourist visits plunged 49.17 percent year-on-year.
DGBAS Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) has said the economy would expand this year, backed by NT$1.05 trillion (US$35.23 billion) in government relief and stimulus measures, contributing more than 5 percent to GDP.
International research institutes have forecast a small recession for Taiwan, partly due to global lockdown measures that would diminish trade flows.
NEW IDENTITY: Known for its software, India has expanded into hardware, with its semiconductor industry growing from US$38bn in 2023 to US$45bn to US$50bn India on Saturday inaugurated its first semiconductor assembly and test facility, a milestone in the government’s push to reduce dependence on foreign chipmakers and stake a claim in a sector dominated by China. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened US firm Micron Technology Inc’s semiconductor assembly, test and packaging unit in his home state of Gujarat, hailing the “dawn of a new era” for India’s technology ambitions. “When young Indians look back in the future, they will see this decade as the turning point in our tech future,” Modi told the event, which was broadcast on his YouTube channel. The plant would convert
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
RSS