The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Jan. 30 that Taiwan’s economy grew 3.51% last year, slightly above the government’s earlier forecast of 3.43%.

DGBAS said that the nation registered a real GDP growth of 3.17% during the last quarter of 2014, beating its own estimate in November of 2.83%. The DGBAS said that despite a series of food safety scandals and crisis in Taiwan during the fourth quarter last year, the domestic economy remained steady and continued to grow, which was the main reason to beat its own forecast last November.

Quoting its statistics, DGBAS said that during the period between October and December, Taiwan’s exports in electronics, machinery and base metal all increased, while outbound sales in gasoline/diesel and plastics/rubber products offset total exports.

The DGBAS said that after inflationary adjustment, real exports in merchandise and services during the fourth quarter last year showed the year-on-year growth of 5.57%, while merchandise and services imports grew 4.59% from the previous year. In the meantime, retail sales for the fourth quarter were boosted by a 4.31% year-on-year sales growth in the auto industry.

DGBAS said, however, the statistics showed that the food safety scandals during the last quarter for 2014 did hurt consumer sentiment to some extent. A positive factor, however, was the local government elections in late November, which boosted spending during the campaign period, the DGBAS said, which became a reason that retail revenue in Taiwan grew 3.08% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, and private consumption increased 2.33%.

DGBAS’ statistics also showed that fixed capital formation also increased, rising 2.19% from a year earlier. Capital equipment imports, however, showed a 1.74% plunge as a result of a higher comparison base in the same period of 2013.

As for the first three quarters of 2014, DGBAS said, Taiwan’s GDP grew 3.41%, 3.87% and 3.63%, respectively.

The DGBAS was scheduled to issue a preliminary report on the nation’s GDP growth for the whole of 2014 and an updated forecast for 2015 sometime in the upcoming February. In its most recent prediction last November, it forecast a 3.50% growth for 2015.

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Smart devices are apparently everywhere. In fact, they are now even invading our home food space. Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, had just unveiled what is introduced as a set of “smart” chopsticks, that can help users tell if what they are eating is safe or not.

The smart chopsticks set were first unveiled last week during this year’s Baidu World technology conference event. Externally it may look like an ordinary pair of plastic chopsticks, but it is actually infused and buffed with tech inside. To use it, the chopsticks must first connect to a smartphone that uses its special app. As the chopstick touches the food item, it would then take readings of the food’s standard physical properties. The data collected from the readings would then be used to form a general assessment as to whether it is safe to eat or not.

As far as the announcement goes, the chopsticks are claimed to be capable of reading temperature, salt content and PH levels. Aside from this, it is also supposedly capable of reading cooking oil quality in food, allowing it to see whether the oil used is still good, too old, or even if it’s something that you should reconsider consuming. The oil quality detecting function is of particular interest here, as it directly tackles one of the biggest food safety issues in China today.

The idea of chopsticks infused with tech doesn’t really sound that novel, and it is hardly the first “smart” concept that the Chinese search engine giant has developed. However, the idea brings the possibility for this kind of food-utensil-turned-tech-item trend to become even more popular. Then again, the trend might have actually begun already.

No announcements for mass production yet, so the distribution price for the smart chopsticks is yet to be revealed.

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