Taiwan slips into recession as Q1 GDP contracts worse than expected

TAIPEI  – Taiwan’s export-dependent economy slipped into recession in the first quarter and shrank by a worse rate than expected, hit by a drop in exports due to slowing global tech demand amid broader economic woes.

For the January-March period, annual gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 3.02 percent from a year earlier, following a contraction of 0.41 percent in the previous quarter, preliminary data from the statistics agency showed on Friday.

That was worse than a fall of 1.25 percent predicted in a Reuters poll.

Quarter-on-quarter, the economy contracted 6.37 percent on a seasonally adjusted annual rate.

First-quarter exports dropped 19.17 percent from a year earlier in U.S. dollar terms, the agency said, hit by high global inflation, the war in Ukraine and generally weaker demand worldwide.

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