sun with 12 triangular rays

Economy

Economy - overview: Taiwan has a dynamic capitalist economy with
considerable guidance of investment and foreign trade by government
officials and partial government ownership of some large banks and
industrial firms. Real growth in GDP has averaged about 9% a year
during the past three decades. Export growth has been even faster and
has provided the impetus for industrialization. Inflation and
unemployment are low. Agriculture contributes less than 4% to GDP,
down from 35% in 1952. Traditional labor-intensive industries are
steadily being moved 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 influx of 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%, basic metals 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 metals and articles 10.3%, minerals 9.2% (1996 est.)
partners: Japan 30.1%, US 21.7%, EU cou