Institute increases GDP forecast‘K-SHAPED RECOVERY’: The Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute’s president said that export growth and declining imports had improved the trade surplus from last yearBy Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporterThe Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute (元大寶華綜經院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan to 1.63 percent, up from its March prediction of 1.5 percent, due to better-than-expected exports, Yuanta-Polaris president Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源) said. The growth also beat some foreign think tank forecasts that Taiwan’s exports would fall prey to contracting global trade amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute president Liang Kuo-yuan speaks at a news conference in Taipei on March 25. “Thanks to stable growth in exports and declining imports due to falling oil prices, the nation’s trade surplus improved from a year earlier, which also helped support GDP growth,” he said. The institute projected a “K-shaped recovery” for Taiwan’s economy, meaning uneven but continued growth among different sectors and income groups.

Source: Taipei Times September 23, 2020 15:56 UTC