Taiwan president's economic boasts come back to haunt

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, fresh off an election victory in 2008 moncler vest, offered a vision of prosperity through closer ties with China: the economy would grow 6 percent per year, per capita income would reach $30,000 and unemployment would be 3 percent.

Four years on and in a heated re-election campaign for the January 2012 presidential poll, voters are hearing a starkly different message moncler jackets , and tone, from the man who dramatically opened Taiwan's economy to political rival China and brought relations to their best in six decades: He needs more time.

"There are goals we failed to achieve, such as the unemployment rate. I apologies for failing to achieve the goal and I understand that public frustration will be reflected in my approval rating," Ma told a television audience in October. "However, we managed to revitalize the economy amid the global financial crisis ... give me four more years and I will do better."

Taiwan's GDP grew 10.8 percent in 2010 in a recovery from the crisis-induced 1.9 percent contraction in 2009 and the government has forecast 4.5 percent growth this year moncler outlet. However, per capita income hovers around $20,000 and unemployment has remained stubbornly above 4 percent all year.

Government figures show the number of families living below the poverty line increased by 10,000 to 114,000 in less than two years from mid-2009 to the second quarter of 2011. Average house prices meanwhile remain at 9.2 times annual household income, making housing unaffordable for many.

In a report last month, a poll commissioned by brokerage CLSA showed that only 8 percent found that their personal and family economic situation was either much better or better in the last two to three years moncler men's vest, with 53.5 percent saying it was about the same and 19.5 percent saying it was worse.

"Before, even though work was hard but we didn't have any livelihood pressures," said a 64-year-old scrap metal seller in the southern Taiwan township of Changjhih, who would only give his surname, Liu. "Nowadays, not only to do we have tough jobs, our life burden is also very heavy ... these past two to three years I feel things are a lot worse."

Others see the economic integration with China mostly benefiting big businesses like Taiwan's technology companies moncler women's vest, who have poured millions into plants across China to make everything from flat panel screens to iPads.

"Smaller businesses like us can't increase our income because of China," said Shih Hsi-liang, a business owner in the central city of Taichung, whose firm does interior design and woodcrafts in local workshops and factories. "We're too small and don't have the means to touch this larger market, they won't come to look for us."