TAIPEI, May 21 (Reuters) - Taiwan's economy shrank a record 10.24 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the government said on Thursday, worse than market expectations and triggering a cut in the full-year growth forecast.
The government lowered its 2009 GDP growth estimate to a contraction of 4.25 percent from its previous forecast of a contraction of 2.97 percent, confirming what sources at the national statistics agency had told Reuters earlier on Thursday.
Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the island's gross domestic product to shrink in the first quarter by 9.2 percent from a year earlier, reflecting the trade-dependent island's exposure to the world economic slump.
The government also cut its full-year 2009 forecasts for exports and imports as well as those for private consumption and private investments. (Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Jan Dahinten)