TAIPEI (Reuters) -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% higher than last year, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said, revising down the 2.75% forecast it issued in November.
That would mark a slowdown from the 2.45% logged for 2022, which was itself far slower than 2021’s 6.53% expansion.
The statistics agency now sees 2023 exports down 5.84% on last year, compared with a 0.22% contraction predicted earlier.
The office also revised up its 2023 inflation outlook. It sees this year’s consumer price index 2.16% higher than last year, compared with a previously forecast rise of 1.86%.
In the fourth quarter, GDP shrank by a revised 0.41% on a year earlier, revising up a preliminary reading of a 0.86% contraction, the agency said.
(Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Meg Shen; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)
