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
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]