“Exports would bear the brunt as China accounts for 40 percent of Taiwanese exports,” DGBAS Minister Chu Tzer-ming (朱澤民) told a news conference in Taipei. International research bodies have not yet adjusted their growth forecasts to account for the outbreak, the DGBAS said. The outbreak might dent the nation’s economy by between 0.35 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points this year, if it can be contained in three months, Chu said. That would be less serious than the 2003 SARS outbreak that erased 0.57 percentage points from Taiwan’s GDP growth that year, he said. DGBAS also revised down GDP growth for last year to 2.71 percent, 0.02 percentage points lower than data released last month.

Source: Taipei Times February 12, 2020 15:56 UTC