Despite a tepid response from investors since the presidential election, publicly-listed companies reported total revenues of NT$2.06 trillion in the first quarter of the year, a 26.9 percent rise from a year ago, according to a recent report by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
The nation's top number crunchers said that the net income of these companies hit NT$307.1 billion, a 118 percent jump from the same period last year.
DGBAS attributed the surge in companies' revenues to the global economic recovery since the fourth quarter of last year -- which has boosted domestic demand -- and the red-hot Chinese economy. China's economic growth is expected to top a 9 percent annual rate for the first half of this year, a factor which has pushed forward its exports of raw materials to countries in the region.
The electronics industry, which accounts for 55.7 percent of all public companies in Taiwan, topped the money-making chart with revenues of NT$1.14 trillion in the first quarter, a 33.8 percent increase from a year ago, DGBAS reported.
It was followed by plastics companies, with NT$193.2 billion in total revenues and 28.7 percent year-on-year growth rate. The finance and insurance sector ranked third, shoveling in NT$160.8 billion in revenues, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year.
Other industries that enjoyed high revenue growth include the automobile manufacturing sector, which marked a 29.9 percent increase and the steelmaking industry, which reported a 22-percent advance in revenues due to soaring prices.
Construction materials firms also saw an upturn, having suffered from the recession last year.
The firms reported NT$23.4 billion in revenues during the first quarter and a 6.6 percent growth rate, owing to the recovery and the initiation of major public construction projects, DGBAS said.
However, bearing the brunt of the depressing factors of the presidential election and the post-election row, the tourism industry made only NT$1.8 billion, a 2.3 percent drop from a year ago.
The government is counting on surging exports and domestic demand to drive economic growth, which DGBAS predicts will accelerate to 5.41 percent this year from 3.24 percent last year.
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