TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan roared ahead of the rest of Asia's four tigers in 2019 with a growth rate of 2.73 percent.
On Tuesday (Jan. 21), the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced that Taiwan's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.38 percent in the fourth quarter last year, an increase of 0.34 percentage points over the original forecast. This enabled Taiwan's GDP growth rate for 2019 to be upwardly revised 0.09 percentage points to 2.73 percent.
DGBAS specialist Huang Wei-chieh (黃偉傑) pointed out that due to better-than-expected domestic investment, exports, and private consumption, including the communication app boom and demand driven by 5G, led to an expansion of production capacity, reported CNA. In addition, the export of information technology, audio-visual products, and electronic components increased significantly, with growth rates of 19.42 percent and 8.99 percent, respectively.
According to statistics from the DGBAS, the GDP growth rate in the first three quarters of the year was 1.84 percent, 2.60 percent, and 2.99 percent, respectively, while in the fourth quarter it rose to 3.38 percent. Huang explained that the fourth-quarter figures for Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea have not yet been released, but Taiwan bested its rivals in the first three quarters of the year.
Given Taiwan's dominance of the first three quarters and its even stronger finish in the fourth quarter, economists predict that Taiwan came out on top among the four Asian tigers in terms of GDP growth last year
