FORECAST HIKES:Drastic changes in global crude oil prices would hurt growth, but that is unlikely given global inventories and US shale oil production, the CIER president said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 20, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for this year’s GDP growth from 1.73 percent to 2.11 percent, saying that the recovering global economy would benefit the nation’s exports and private investments.

“The stronger-than-expected momentum of the global economic recovery was the main reason CIER increased the forecast,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a news conference in Taipei.

With the nation’s exports’ performance steadily gaining momentum since the second half of last year, CIER is also raising its estimate for this year’s exports, Wu said.

However, domestic demand would contribute 1.57 percentage points of the 2.11 percent growth estimate, Wu said.    [FULL  STORY]