Growth in Taiwan Manufacturing Industry Hits 26-Year LowTaiwan's manufacturing sector fell by 4.95 percent in the first three months of this year as compared with the year-ago period, marking the slowest growth since the first oil crisis struck the world in 1975, according to reports of Taiwan's local media reaching here Monday.According to Taiwan authorities' statistical department, export orders received by Taiwan exporters and manufacturers totaled 12.5 billion U.S. dollars in March, down 1.12 percent from the same month of 2000 but increasing by 16.79 percent from January this year. In March, Taiwan's industrial production posted a reduction of 4.38 percent from the same month last year, while the figure for the first three months dropped by an annual 4.17 percent. Meanwhile, manufacturing production in March fell by 5.6 percent from the same month of 2000 but increased by 12.59 percent from February this year. Cumulatively, manufacturing production from January to March posted a decline of 4.95 percent from the same quarter of the previous year. As Taiwan's foreign trade and industrial as well as manufacturing output are closely linked to the economic situations in the United States and Japan, economists forecast that the island's growth will remain in a low ebb during the second quarter as there are no signs that the economies of Taiwan's two largest trading partners will recover in the near future. |
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