News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 26 Nov 2007

Taiwan’s 3Q Economic Growth Hits 6.92%

Taipei, Nov. 23, 2007 (CENS)-Bolstered by better-than-expectation export performance, Taiwan`s economy scored an extraordinary 6.92% growth in the third quarter, the highest since the third quarter of 2004, prompting the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) to revise upward its economic growth forecast for 2007 to 5.46%, up 0.88 percentage points from the previous forecast of 4.58% made in August.

Meanwhile, the DGBAS also predicted yesterday (Nov. 22) that the island`s economy will grow 4.53% next year, which, though, is subject to the variables of subprime mortgage storm, depreciation of the greenback, and prices of crude oil and bulk, commodities.

Taiwan`s economic growth in the third quarter ranked second place in the four Asia little dragons, higher than Hong Kong with 6.2% and South Korea with 5.2%, but lower than Singapore with 8.9%.

DGBAS attributed the performance, which surprised many observers, to booming export business, which shot up 9.7%, leading to 11.3% growth in manufacturing output, with the latter contributing 3.1 percentage points to the economic growth.

Meanwhile, along with subsiding twin-card debt storm, aggregate banking net income rose 2.8% in the third quarter, reversing previous red inks, and banking revenue advanced 6.1%, compared with 1-2% growth in recent years, while securities-business revenue soared 98.9% in the quarter, leading to 12.5% growth for the financial and insurance industry.

Third-quarter private consumption advanced at the moderate pace of 3.5%, and private investments jumped 6.5%, at the heels of 8.6% growth in the second quarter, thanks to mega investment projects in the fields of steel, basic metals, and 12-inch wafer fab. The DGBAS predicted private investments will grow 5.07% for the entire year, with the value breaking the NT$2 trillion mark, reaching NT$2.066 trillion.