A leading think tank is predicting that Taiwan’s GDP growth for 2015 will be 0.93%.
The figure, released by the Chunghua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) Monday, is lower than the 1.06% predicted by the government statistics office in late November.
CIER said that, GDP growth is unlikely to stay above 1% because of weakening global demand and flat domestic consumer spending.
CIER President Wu Chung-shu explained.
"Although the statistics office raised predictions of GDP growth slightly for the first and second quarter this year, the momentum needed for economic growth in the second half of this year remains weak," Wu said. "Therefore, our forecast for this year’s GDP growth stands at 0.93%. As to the economic outlook, our prediction for next year stands at 2.24%, due to the lackluster global economy."
Wu also said that the drop in crude oil prices below US$40 per barrel has added pressure on countries that rely on energy exports, but suffer from weak domestic demand. Wu said he expects to see greater volatility in the capital market next year due to impact the slowdown of these economies will have on the global economy.