ts conservative
financial approach and its entrepreneurial strengths, Taiwan suffered
little compared with many of its neighbors from the Asian financial
crisis in 1998-99. The global economic downturn, however, combined
with poor policy coordination by the new administration and increasing
bad debts in the banking system, pushed Taiwan into recession in 2001,
the first whole year of negative growth since 1947. Unemployment also
reached a level not seen since the 1970s oil crisis.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $386 billion (2001 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: -2.2% (2001 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $17,200 (2001 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2% industry: 32% services: 66%
(2000 est.)

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

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA%
highest 10%: NA%

Distribution of family income - Gini index: 32.6 (2000)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0.5% (2001 est.)

Labor force: 9.8 million (2001 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: services 56%, industry 36%, agriculture 8%
(2001 est.)

Unemployment rate: 4.5% (2001 est.)

Budget: revenues: $36 billion expenditures: $36.1 billion, including
capital expenditures of $NA (2002 est.)

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

Industrial production growth rate: -5% (2001 est.)

Electricity - production: 149.78 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 69.48% hydro: 5.82%
other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 24.7%

Electricity - consumption: 139.295 billion kWh (2000)

Electricity - exports: 0 kWh (2000)

Electricity - imports: 0 kWh (2000)

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

Exports: $122 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Exports - commodities: machinery and electrical equipment 55%, metals,
textiles, plastics, chemicals

Exports - partners: US 23.5%, Hong Kong 21.1%, Europe 16%, ASEAN 12.2%,
Japan 11.2% (2000)

Imports: $109 billion (f.o.b., 2001)

Imports - commodities: machinery and electrical equipment 50%, minerals,
precision instruments

Imports - partners: Japan 27.5%, US 17.9%, Europe 13.6%, South Korea 6.4%
(2000)

Debt - external: $40 billion (2000)

Currency: new Taiwan dollar (TWD)

Currency code: TWD

Exchange rates: new Taiwan dollars per US dollar - 34