The government statistics office predicts Taiwan’s GDP growth for 2016 will be at least 1%.
The head of the office, Chu Tzer-ming, said GDP growth for the first half of 2016 was 0.21%. He estimates growth of 2.19% for the second half, bringing the overall growth rate for the year to 1.22%. That’s a 0.16 percentage point increase from the forecast in May.
Other think tanks however are not as optimistic. Cathay Financial Holdings estimates 0.8% growth for the year while eight overseas think tanks hold an average growth rate of only 0.92%.
Nevertheless, Chu said he has confidence in Taiwan’s economic growth for the year. He said, "The reason why there’s such a big difference in our estimates against the others is in the export figures. In reality, according to international statistics, the estimate for Taiwan’s exports is actually positive growth."
Meanwhile, the statistics office announced Taiwan’s unemployment rate stood at 4.08% in August. That’s a new high for the last two years.