Academia Sinica, the nation's top research institute, yesterday revised upward its forecast for Taiwan's economic growth this year to 3.24 percent from the 3.08 percent it predicted in December.
The nation's GDP growth in the second quarter is expected to reach 3.13 percent following an 0.89 percent expansion between January and March, said Wu Chung-shu (吳中書), a researcher at Academia Sinica's Institute of Economics.
Third-quarter growth is estimated at 4.72 percent followed by 4.19 percent in the last quarter of the year, Wu said.
While domestic demand is not growing as strong as expected, Wu said the outlook for Taiwan is promising due to rising exports in recent months. "Exports have picked up more than expected to bolster future economic growth."
Following the growth of export orders by 11.45 percent and 14.27 percent in April and May respectively, the nation's exports are expected to post double-digit growth in the next three months, Wu said.
The researcher said China has taken over the US as Taiwan's biggest export destination, with the Chinese market accounting for almost 30 percent of Taiwan's export value, followed by the US with around 20 percent.
"China's markets have become pivotal to Taiwan's economy," Wu said.
Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
In response, Wu said the links will greatly cut down transportation costs to benefit Taiwan's economy in the long term -- from a strictly economic point of view.
The nation's private investments are expected to grow by merely 0.58 percent for the year while public investment is seen to contract by 0.88 percent during the same period, according to the institute.
Commenting on the NT dollar's recent appreciation against its US counterpart, Wu said his view went contrary to the market, which sees the NT dollar appreciating further against the greenback.
"The NT dollar's appreciation against the US dollar should be in tandem with the Singapore dollar," Wu said. He expects the local currency to trade at NT$32.91 against the greenback during the third quarter and NT$32.53 in the last quarter of the year.
As the NT dollar has limited room to appreciate against the US dollar, the nation's exports shouldn't be hardly hit by the exchange rate factor, Wu said.
Joan Zheng, a researcher at JP Morgan Chase Bank in Hong Kong also has a bullish view on Taiwan's economic growth, saying they forecast a 4.3 percent growth for Taiwan's GDP this year.
Both Academia Sinica's and JP Morgan's forecasts are much higher than those made by the government's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics -- which forecasts GDP growth of 2.55 percent this year.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS