Taiwan Economic Growth Rate Around 3 PercentTaiwan's economic growth rate in the first quarter of this year will stand at around 3 percent, according to reports reaching here from Taipei Sunday.A local economic expert was cited as saying that if growth can maintain a 6-percent level, the unemployment rate will not increase. However, the expert added, Taiwan has suffered increased unemployment month by month since July 2000, when the jobless rate broke through 3 percent. Unemployment has been increasing faster and faster and the jobless rate surged to 3.73 percent in February, indicating that the pace of the island's economic slump has been faster than expected, the expert said. Taiwan's economic growth rate declined to 4.08 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, and this slowdown has extended to the present, he added. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |