Taiwanese economy boosted by electronic imports
Growth has returned to the Taiwanese economy in Q3 as electronic importation increased, but worries remain over full-year results.
The economy grew by a less-than-expected rate of 1 percent, whereas analysts expected a boost of 1.5 percent, according to The Financial Times. For the first time since 2009, Taiwan suffered a 0.2 percent contraction between April and June this year, which government economists blamed on "frail domestic demand." The island's economy grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter.
The Taiwan government has lowered its full-year growth forecast to 1.66 percent, citing the European debt crisis and slowing economic growth in China -- the island's largest customer for exports.
The explanation for the slight improvement economically may be due to new product releases, including Apple's iPhone and tablet, as well as computers that will run the new Windows 8 operating system.
Although Taiwan's economic growth has recovered from its earlier 0.2 percent contraction in Q2, over the last seven months, imports have fallen 5.8 percent to $171.6 billion. In part, this is due to low sales in smartphones, memory chips and LCD panels.
Approximately 75 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is accounted for through gross exports.
(viaThe Financial Times)
Image credit: Flickr
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com