SPENDING SLUMP: The agency adjusted downward its economic growth forecast for this year as private consumption slid 4.98% last quarter and looks weak ahead

Taipei Times
Date: Aug 15, 2020
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday trimmed its forecast for GDP growth for a third time this year, to 1.56 percent, from the 1.67 percent it predicted in May, after private consumption fared worse than expected.

Private consumption contracted by the deepest in history, by 4.98 percent, during the April-to-June period and might not recover fast enough to tip the GDP component back into growth this year, DGBAS Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) told a media briefing.

It is expected to drop another 0.04 percent this quarter before picking up 0.71 percent next quarter, the agency’s report showed.

For the whole of this year, private consumption is forecast to shrink 1.44 percent, it said.
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