Economy - overview:
Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with gradually decreasing
guidance of investment and foreign trade by government authorities.
In keeping with this trend, some large government-owned banks and
industrial firms are being privatized. Exports have provided the
primary impetus for industrialization. The trade surplus is
substantial, and foreign reserves are the world's third largest.
Agriculture contributes 2% to GDP, down from 32% in 1952. While
Taiwan is a major investor throughout Southeast Asia, China has
become the largest destination for investment and has overtaken the
US to become Taiwan's largest export market. Because of its
conservative financial approach and its entrepreneurial strengths,
Taiwan suffered little compared with many of its neighbors from the
Asian financial crisis in 1998. The global economic downturn,
combined with problems in policy coordination by the administration
and bad debts in the banking system, pushed Taiwan into recession in
2001, the first year of negative growth ever recorded. Unemployment
also reached record levels. Output recovered moderately in 2002 in
the face of continued global slowdown, fragile consumer confidence,
and bad bank loans. Growing economic ties with China are a dominant
long-term factor. Exports to China - mainly parts and equipment for
the assembly of goods for export to developed countries - drove
Taiwan's economic recovery in 2002.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $406 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
3.5% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $18,000 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2% industry: 31% services: 67% (2002 est.)
Population below poverty line: 1% (2000 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 6.4% highest 10%: 41.1% (2002 est.)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
32.6 (2000)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
-0.2% (2002 est.)
Labor force:
10 million (2003)