Taiwan’s economy is expected to grow by 6.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of this year, according to DBS Bank. In the previous year’s final quarter, the growth rate was 5.09 percent. The data had been derived from industries such as exports, industrial production, capital goods imports and retail sales.
The statement also said that in the second quarter, with projected GDP growth of 7.5 percent from the year before that backing to 3.8 percent in the third quarter and a 3 percent in the fourth quarter. Even amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic growth for the year is expected to improve than the 3.11 percent growth of the previous year.
Ma Tieing, DBS Bank Economist said, “Our full-year GDP growth forecast for 2021 is lifted to 5 percent from 4.2 percent. This will be the fastest pace over more than a decade, ever since the post-global financial crisis recovery in 2010.” The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics data shows that the country’s economy had grown 10.25 percent in the year 2010.
The pandemic has changed the lifestyle of people and has made the internet the centre of virtually almost everything. This has significantly increased the demand for semiconductors worldwide. Thus the global chip shortage is expected to continue to support Taiwan’s exports and manufacturing sector in the near future. This will also be helping the nation to rise from the slump it faced in the service sectors like aviation, tourism and hospitality due to the early onset of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The local economy’s strength pressured consumer prices which induced DBS to lift its inflation forecast to an increase of 1.5 percent for the current year and the previous year’s estimate was 1 percent.