Taiwan’s top research institute, Academia Sinica, has raised its forecast for the country’s economic growth for 2014 to 3.31%. That’s up from the originally predicted 2.89%.
The institute made the announcement on Thursday. The institute cited continued strong exports thanks to an improving global economy.
Academia Sinica’s figure is the highest among domestic institutes. The institute said domestic consumption will continue to be an important driver for growth. But it also pointed out that in the past three years, public spending has seen negative growth, and that the trend is likely to continue.
A researcher with Academia Sinica’s Institute of Economics, Ray Chou, said Taiwan’s growth momentum will continue.
"[We’re] cautiously optimistic about the economy in the second half of this year," said Chou. "The first quarter growth rate was higher than what we expected last year, and in the second half of this year, growth will continue to gather pace, mainly because the international economic situation has improved significantly," he said.
Academia Sinica said the global economy has come out of the "great recession". But it said that low inflation in the Eurozone and a possible financial crisis in China may affect Taiwan’s economic growth.