Economic Trends

In 2009 Taiwan registered a negative economic growth rate of -1.91%. Due to the global crisis the export oriented economy had to accept heavy losses. In 2009 exports declined by 20.3%, imports by 27.4%. However, the decline in 2009 was smaller then predicted by many experts, which indicates that the Taiwanese economy is recovering faster than expected. This is also a result of the government spending program to boost the economy, as well as the slowly increasing demand especially within the Asian region. In 2010 the real GDP growth of 10.82% was higher than predicted. The reason for this mainly was the worldwide recovering economy, as well as the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China. 

The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is a preferential trade agreement between the governments of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, with the aim to reduce cross-strait tariffs and investment barriers for a large number of sectors in trade in goods and services. Additionally to the relaxations of trade barriers, ECFA aims to promote two-way investment as well as trade and investment facilitation and industry exchanges and cooperation. ECFA was signed in Chongqing on June 29, 2010 and came into effect on September 12, 2010. The tariff reduction arrangement within the framework of ECFA is called Early Harvest List. Since January 1, 2011 custom duties on 539 Taiwanese and 267 Chinese products on this list have started to be reduced step-by-step, thus in 2013 the tariffs will be down to zero. China and Taiwan have adopted different tariff escalations, for further information please download the Early Harvest List (Chinese, English and German) in our Trade Info section.

In 2010 the unemployment rate totaled 5.21%. Since the economy is recovering from the global crisis, many companies start hiring labor force again. The increasing number of investment also contributes to the relaxation of the labor market. The decline of unemployed workforces continues with an average unemployment rate of 4.6% in the first quarter of 2011. The minimum wage was raised in January 2011 to USD 563 (TWD17,880; 1USD = TWD 31.75). The average wage in 2010 was USD 1400.

The total exports in 2009 decreased by 20.3% to a total value of USD 203.69 bn. However, the exports denoted an increase of 34.8% in 2010 with a total export value of USD 276.64 bn. Since Taiwan is one of the global leaders in the information and communication technology industry (ICT) its main export products are electronics, followed by optoelectronics, machinery, plastics and chemicals. The ICT sector is expected to continue its growth, mainly because of Taiwan strong engagement in semiconductors and the LED-industry. Taiwan is also increasing its activities in the biotechnology and medicine sector. Due to the opening towards the Chinese in the course of the ECFA it is to be expected that Taiwan is going to be more integrated in the value-adding process between China and other countries, and will therefore benefit from China’s economic growth.

¹ revised; ² %-change compared to previous year