Think tank lowers Taiwan 2019 manufacturing growth forecast

TAIPEI - An industrial research think tank in Taiwan Tuesday cut its forecast for the island's manufacturing output growth rate in 2019 to 1.58 percent, down 1.63 percentage points from its earlier forecast.

The output value of the island's manufacturing sector will stand at NT$19.56 trillion ($632.8 billion) this year, according to Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute.

The institute attributed the decrease to the contraction of manufacturing procurement in major economies.

The think tank predicted that the output value of the island's machine tool industry would drop 5 percent while machinery orders to the Chinese mainland would plunge 14 percent in 2019 from the previous year.

The estimated output value of the chemical industry will fall 4.12 percentage points from the previous prediction to register an annual growth of 1.1 percent this year, reaching NT$5.02 trillion, it said.

The annual growth rate for metal and electromechanical sector, information and electronic sector, and people's livelihoods industry will also be slightly lower than previous estimates.

In addition, the island's export orders saw a 10.5 percent year-on-year drop to reach $43.38 billion in December, the largest decrease in 32 months, according to local economic authority, predicting that the orders would continue to drop in January.