TAIPEI: Taiwan cut its 2016 economic growth outlook for the third time on Friday, as weak demand for the island’s technology exports continue to hurt the island’s prospects for recovery.
Gross domestic product this year should grow 1.06 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said, slower than 1.47 percent growth it forecast previously.
The government had cut the forecast twice before in February and November, as the trade-reliant economy was battered by China’s slowdown and sluggish global demand.
Taiwan’s economy contracted 0.68 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, better than a preliminary estimate of a 0.84 percent fall.
On a seasonally-adjusted and annualised basis (SAAR), the January-March quarter grew a revised 3.14 percent, compared with a preliminary forecast of 0.76 percent, the statistics agency said.
