Its rather amusing to see the Taiwanese protesters adopting Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables as some kind of official protest anthem, as if Taiwans current economic and social conditions are really as bad as they were prior to the French Revolution. I know economic data dont always tell the full story but a simple reading of the data nonetheless presents pretty compelling evidence against all the scaremongering by the protesters. By most calculations, Taiwans economy is now the 19th largest in the world by purchasing power parity, meaning that its among the top 10% of the worlds richest countries. The Asian Development Bank forecasts Taiwans 2014 GDP growth at 2.7%, which is pretty robust considering that both Japan and South Korea stand at around 2%, while the UK will be lucky to get to 1% this year. Unemployment rate has averaged around 4% over the last six months while both the United States and Canada reported around 7% over the same period. And finally, Taiwans inflation rate is a mere 1% which is much healthier than most OECD economies. So really, my dear protesters, not a whole lot to complain about. Its time to go home.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 09:09:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015