Taiwan's gross domestic product (GDP) rose 3.8 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter of this year, according to advance estimates released Friday by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The figure beat the forecast of 3.31 percent made in August, mainly due to robust private investment and Taiwan's strong export performance, driven by high global demand for electronic products and information and communications technology items, the DGBAS explained.

It predicts Taiwan's full-year GDP growth in 2021 will reach 6.01 percent, an increase from the previous forecast of 5.88 percent.

Wu Pei-hsuan (???), a specialist at the statistics agency, said real gross capital formation expanded by 27.97 percent in the third quarter.

Taiwan's capital equipment imports in the third quarter grew by 41.24 percent year-on-year, of which 58.9 percent alone consisted of semiconductor equipment, Wu said, reflecting that "the accumulated capacity of domestic investment has been considerable."

The agency forecast that from the fourth quarter to next year, as long as there is no sudden slowdown in external demand, production and exports can maintain strong momentum.

Meanwhile, DGBAS data also showed private consumption in the third quarter dropped by 5.49 percent year-on-year.

Wu explained that when Taiwan began to experience a surge in locally-transmitted COVID-19 cases in May, domestic consumption started to slow down, and did not improve even though the epidemic situation eased in July, mainly because people were not going out as much and were spending less.

The official, however, expects domestic consumption to recover in the fourth quarter due to Taiwan's improving COVID-19 situation, coupled with the government's stimulus voucher program to boost the local economy.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel