Taiwan raises 2012 growth outlook on China, US recovery signs

Taiwan raised its 2012 growth outlook for the first time in over a year on Friday as demand for its hi-tech electronic exports picks up in its top markets, China and the United States. The government lifted its full-year 2012 growth forecast to 1.13 per cent from 1.05 per cent and its 2013 forecast to 3.15

per cent from 3.09 per cent, following the release of revised

gross domestic product data for the third quarter.

On a quarterly, seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew

0.96 per cent compared with a preliminary reading of 0.86

per cent, indicating it carried slightly more momentum into the

current quarter than previously anticipated. On a year-on-year basis, final third-quarter GDP grew 0.98 per cent, little changed from an advance estimate of 1.02 per cent growth released in late October, the government said.

"It makes sense the government adjusted its 2012 GDP target.

Taiwan's economy is picking up in Q4 after bottoming out in Q2," said Tony Phoo, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Taipei. Taiwan's central bank would keep interest rates unchanged until at least the first half of next year, Phoo predicted.

Glimmers of hope

Like other export-reliant Asian economies, Taiwan has seen a

sharp deterioration in external demand for its goods this year

and a subsequent slump in industrial production, but recent

signs of improvement in China and the United States have offered some hope that conditions may be stabilising.

Data earlier on Friday showed Taiwan's industrial output climbed 4.56 per cent in October from a year earlier, picking up from a 2.88 per cent pace in September. Taiwan's export orders grew by a stronger-than-expected 3.2 per cent in October as U.S. retailers stocked up on popular electronic gadgets for the Christmas shopping season, offering more hope that the Asian economy may be turning the corner.

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