Singapore-based banking group DBS has forecast that Taiwan's economy will pick up in 2017, with its gross domestic product (GDP) likely to grow 2.1 per cent, reports Focus Taiwan.
The DBS forecast suggested an improvement from 2016, when the local economy was estimated by the banking group to grow 1.5 per cent from a year earlier.
DBS economistMa Tieying told Focus Taiwanthat based on a forecast by the International Monetary Fund, which said global economic growth for 2017 will hit 3.4 per cent - up from 3.1 per cent estimated for 2016, Taiwan is expected to do better this year.
She said that Taiwan is likely to climb out of a mediocre 2016: the average economic growth for the first three quarters of 2016 stood at only around 0.8 per cent, according to the bank.
DBS appeared more upbeat than Taiwan's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), which anticipated in late November that Taiwan's economy would grow 1.87 per cent in 2017 on the back of rising global demand, which is expected to boost the country's outbound sales. The DGBAS had forecast that Taiwan's GDP will grow 1.35 per cent in 2016, according to the report.
