Taiwan Q4 GDP plunges to lowest in 13 years

Robert Besser
23 Jan 2023, 18:42 GMT+10

Highlighting its worst performance in 13 years, Taiwan's trade-dependent economy contracted in the fourth quarter
It was affected by declining exports on slowing global tech demand, the war in Ukraine and China's pandemic problems
For the October-December period, annual gross domestic product contracted by 0.86 percent from the same period one year earlier

TAIPEI, Taiwan: Highlighting its worst performance in 13 years, Taiwan's trade-dependent economy contracted in the fourth quarter, affected by declining exports on slowing global tech demand, the war in Ukraine and China's pandemic problems.

For the October-December period, annual gross domestic product contracted by 0.86 percent from the same period one year earlier, compared with 4.01 percent growth for the previous quarter, preliminary data from the statistics agency reported.

That was worse than an increase of 1.3 percent forecast in a Reuters poll, and the worst quarterly performance since the economy contracted 1.13 percent in the third quarter of 2009, when the world was caught in a financial crisis.

Compared with the previous quarter, Taiwan's economy contracted 4.24 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.

"External demand has weakened significantly," the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said, pointing to global inflation and interest rate increases suppressing demand and "the deterioration of the pandemic in mainland China interfering with consumption and production activities".

Taiwan's total fourth-quarter exports dropped 8.63 percent from in year earlier in U.S. dollars, the agency said.

Watch latest videos

News RELEASES

Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Leeds Times.

More Information

3 ℃

Fair in Leeds

Europe

Section

Pentagon secretly providing bombs for Israeli bombardments

The U.S. has supplied Israel with scores of BLU-109 bunker-buster bombs since October 7, the Wall Street Journal has reported, ...

Finland says Russia to blame for migrant crowding eastern border

HELSINKI, Finland: After Finland joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) earlier this year, hundreds of migrants from the Middle ...

Heavy snowfall, blizzards reported in Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria

CHISINAU, Moldova: Over the weekend, heavy snowfall and strong blizzards in Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria left one person dead and ...

EU voices optimism for Bangladesh's election: Calls for democracy, credibility

DHAKA, Bangladesh - The European Union (EU) expressed hope on Wednesday that Bangladesh would hold democratic, credible, peaceful, and participatory ...