Taiwan’s GDP contracts 0.73% in Q2

TECHNICAL RECESSION: Overseas tourism, retail and dining dwindled, but strong high-tech exports and infrastructure spending eased the COVID-19 effect

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 01, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

People walk past a clearance sale sign in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA

Taiwan’s economy contracted 0.73 percent last quarter, missing the government’s May forecast by 1.23 percentage points, as private consumption took a hard hit from the COVID-19 outbreak, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

It is the first decline since the first quarter of 2016 and the worst decline since the global financial crisis in 2009, DGBAS National Income Section head Yu Ming-chun (游敏君) said.

The statics agency earlier predicted 0.53 percent growth for the April-to-June period, but the pandemic wreaked bigger havoc than expected, Yu said.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate contracted for the second consecutive quarter by 8.82 percent, widening from a 3.57 percent fall three months earlier, and pushed Taiwan into a technical recession. [FULL STORY]