GDP OUTLOOK RAISED: Local tech firms have benefited from a boom in products for a low-contact economy, while domestic tourism has recovered, the bank said

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 18, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The central bank yesterday kept its policy interest rate at a record low of 1.125 percent for the second consecutive quarter and slightly raised its forecast for GDP growth this year from 1.52 percent to 1.6 percent.

“The board extended the loose monetary policy to help stabilize consumer prices and support the economy,” central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said after its quarterly board meeting.

Although Taiwan’s economy has resumed growth and might improve further, a negative output gap might remain, meaning growth of supply would outpace demand.

Local tech firms have benefited from a boom in technology products sustaining a low-contact economy, while domestic tourism has staged a V-shaped recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic was brought under control in May, the bank said, after raising its growth projection by 0.08 percentage points based on government spending and private investment as supply chains relocate from China.       [FULL  STORY]