anking 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. Although the SARS epidemic,
Typhoon Maemi, corporate scandals, and a drop in consumer spending
caused GDP growth to contract to 3.2% in 2003, increasingly strong
export performance kept Taiwan's economy on track, and the
government expects Taiwan's economy to grow 4.1% in 2004.

GDP:
purchasing power parity - $528.6 billion (2003 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
3.2% (2003 est.)

GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $23,400 (2003 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 1.8%
industry: 30.3%
services: 67.9% (2003)

Investment (gross fixed):
17.5% of GDP (2003)

Population below poverty line:
1% (2000 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 6.7%
highest 10%: 41.1% (2002 est.)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
-0.3% (2003 est.)

Labor force:
10.08 million (2003)

Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 7.5%, industry 35%, services 57% (2001 est.)

Unemployment rate:
5% (2003 est.)

Budget:
revenues: $56.58 billion
expenditures: $69.21 billion, including capital expenditures of
$14.4 billion (2003 est.)

Public debt:
30.5% of GDP (2003)

Agriculture - products:
rice, corn, vegetables, fruit, tea; pigs, poultry, beef, milk, fish

Industries:
electronics, petroleum refining, chemicals, textiles, iron and
steel, machinery, cement, food processing

Industrial production growth rate:
8.4% (2003)

Electricity - production:
151.1 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - consumption:
140.5 billion kWh (2001)

Electricity - exports:
0 kWh (2001)

Electricity - imports:
0 kWh (2001)

Oil - production:
1,100 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - consumption:
988,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)

Oil - exports:
NA (2001)

Oil - imports:
NA (2001)

Oil - proved reserves:
2 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
750 million cu m (2001