MIXED FORECAST:While exports maintain their gains and could continue to do so, private investment might dip into negative territory, the research institute said

Taipei Times
Date:  Sep 28, 2017
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜經院) yesterday raised its forecast for GDP growth this year from the 2.1 percent it predicted three months ago to 2.25 percent, as exports have performed better amid the launches of next-generation devices by international technology giants.

“Despite fading low-base benefits, exports have maintained a sturdy pickup this year and the trend could be sustained amid an improving global economy,” Yuanta-Polaris president Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源) told a news conference in Taipei.

The institute now expects outbound shipments to increase 5.48 percent for the whole of this year, up from the 4.89 percent growth it previously predicted.

The improving global economy would lend support to the sales of consumer electronics in the buildup to Christmas in the West and the Lunar New Year in the East, Liang said.    [FULL  STORY]