Top economic officials are predicting that Taiwan's GDP will grow between 1.3% and 1.8% this year. That’s with the help of government initiatives to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The head of the government’s statistics office (DGBAS) Chu Tzer-ming said that major industries are all pessimistic about the economic outlook due to uncertainty over the pandemic. Taiwan’s economic agencies say the pandemic's impact on the economy could be worse than the SARS epidemic and the 2009 global financial crisis combined. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is predicting that global trade will decrease by 11% while London-based global information provider -- IHS Markit -- is predicting a negative global economic growth rate of -3%.
Chu said that before the pandemic, the office was predicting 2.72% annual growth for Taiwan’s economy. After the outbreak of COVID-19, that prediction went down to between 0.4% and 0.9%. But with the government’s help, the office expects GDP growth of between 1.3% and 1.8% this year.