Economy - overview Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with considerable guidance ofinvestment and foreign trade by government officials and partial governmentownership of some large banks and industrial firms. Real growth in GDP hasaveraged about 9% a year during the past three decades. Export growth hasbeen even faster and has provided the impetus for industrialization. Inflationand unemployment are low. Agriculture contributes less than 4% to GDP, downfrom 35% in 1952. Traditional labor-intensive industries are steadily beingmoved off-shore and replaced with more capital- and technology-intensive industries.Taiwan has become a major investor in China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines,Malaysia, and Vietnam. The tightening of labor markets has led to an influxof foreign workers, both legal and illegal.

GDP purchasing power parity - $315 billion (1996 est.)

GDP - real growth rate 5.7% (1996)

GDP - per capita purchasing power parity - $14,700 (1996 est.)

GDP - composition by sector
agriculture : 3.3%
industry: 35.7%
services: 61% (1996)

Inflation rate - consumer price index 3.1% (1996)

Labor force
total: 9.31 million
by occupation: services 52%, industry 38%, agriculture 10% (1996 est.)

Unemployment rate 2.6% (1996)

Budget
revenues: $57.6 billion
expenditures: $79.5 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (1996 est.)

Industries electronics, textiles, chemicals, clothing, food processing, plywood,sugar milling, cement, shipbuilding, petroleum refining

Industrial production growth rate 4.1% (1996)

Electricity - capacity 21.87 million kW (1994)

Electricity - production 117.16 billion kWh (1994)

Electricity - consumption per capita 5,270 kWh (1995 est.)

Agriculture - products rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, vegetables, fruit, tea; pigs, poultry,beef, milk; fish catch increasing, reached 1.4 million metric tons in 1988

Exports
total value: $116 billion (f.o.b., 1996)
commodities: machinery and electrical equipment 46.3%, textile products 13.5%, basicmetals and articles 8.8%, chemicals 6.7% (1996 est.)
partners : US 27.6%, Hong Kong 21.7%, EU countries 15.2%, Japan 10.5% (1994 est.)

Imports
total value: $102.4 billion (c.i.f., 1996)
commodities: machinery and electrical equipment 35.5%, chemicals 10.9%, basic metalsand articles 10.3%, minerals 9.2% (1996 est.)
partners: Japan 30.1%, US 21.7%, EU countries 17.6% (1993 est.)

Debt - external $600 million (1995 est.)

Economic aid $NA

Currency 1 New Taiwan dollar (NT$) = 100 cents

Exchange rates New Taiwan dollars per US$1 - 27.5 (1996), 27.4 (1995), 26.2 (1994),26.6 (1993), 25.4 (1992)

Fiscal year 1 July - 30 June

NOTE: The information regarding Taiwan on this page is re-published from the 1997 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Taiwan Economy 1997 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Taiwan Economy 1997 should be addressed to the CIA.