Cathay Financial sticks with 2% growth forecast for Taiwan in 2018

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/12/25
By: Tien Yu-pin and Frances Huang 

Taipei, Dec. 25 (CNA) Cathay Financial Holding Co., one of Taiwan’s leading financial holding companies, said Monday it was maintaining its forecast of 2 percent growth for Taiwan in 2018 that it originally made in September.

National Central University economist Hsu Chih-chiang (徐之強), who led the Cathay Financial research team that made the forecast, said at a press conference that Taiwan will continue to benefit from solid global demand as the world economy shows steady growth.

Hsu said the research team was upbeat about Taiwan’s exports, which should continue to drive the country’s GDP growth in 2018, but he cautioned that some of that upward momentum might be offset by relatively slow growth in domestic demand.

Cathay Financial’s forecast was more conservative than that of other local think tanks and the government’s statistic agency, which have all projected 2018 growth above 2 percent.
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