Taiwan revises down 2023 GDP growth forecast on export slump

TAIPEI  -Taiwan’s economy is likely to grow more slowly this year than previously forecast, the statistics office said on Wednesday, while also slashing the island’s export outlook due to global inflation, rate rises and impact of the war in Ukraine.

Gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023 is now expected to be 2.12 percent higher than last year, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said, revising down the 2.75 percent forecast it issued in November.

That would mark a slowdown from the 2.45 percent logged for 2022, which was itself far slower than 2021’s 6.53 percent expansion.

The statistics agency now sees 2023 exports down 5.84 percent on last year, compared with a 0.22 percent contraction predicted earlier.

The office also revised up its 2023 inflation outlook. It sees this year’s consumer price index 2.16 percent higher than last year, compared with a previously forecast rise of 1.86 percent.

In the fourth quarter, GDP shrank by a revised 0.41 percent on a year earlier, revising up a preliminary reading of a 0.86- percent contraction, the agency said.