Academia Sinica on Monday lowered its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth in 2022 from 3.85 percent forecast late last year to 3.52 percent, due to the changing political and economic situation at home and abroad.

The institution said it made the downward adjustment because of mounting pressure on the domestic economy in the second half of the year, despite Taiwan’s booming export and import performance, Academia Sinica research fellow Ray Chou (???) said.

At the same time, Academic Sinica also raised its forecast for this year’s consumer price index (CPI) from 2.04 percent to 3.16 percent, and for the wholesale price index (WPI) in 2022 from 4.04 percent to 11.31 percent due to rising raw material prices and higher electricity rates.

Private-sector consumption is expected to rebound in the second half of the year and grow by 2.93 percent for the whole of 2022, the top academic research institution of Taiwan projected.

Based on year-on-year growth of 14.33 percent for imports of capital equipment in the first half of the year, Academic Sinica forecast that private-sector investment will expand by 4.39 percent this year, after taking higher product prices and a higher comparison base in 2021 into consideration.

Academic Sinica also forecast an average jobless rate of 3.71 percent this year, compared with 3.65 percent in the first five months, as the outlook for the hotel/restaurant, wholesale/retail sectors and other local consumption related businesses remains uncertain owing to the pandemic.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel