The Asian Development Bank (ADB) projected Taiwan’s economy would grow 7.6 percent this year, as surging demand for advanced semiconductors underpins the nation’s technology exports and investments despite higher energy prices amid the Middle East conflict.
The figure was up 3.6 percentage points from the ADB’s previous estimate in December last year, and marked the largest growth among advanced economies in Asia and the Pacific region, the bank’s Asian Development Outlook report released on April 10 showed.
The advanced economies in Asia and the Pacific comprise Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, the Manila-based bank said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
Singapore is projected to expand by 3 percent this year, followed by Hong Kong at 2.6 percent, Australia at 2 percent, South Korea and New Zealand at 1.9 percent, and Japan at 0.7 percent, the report showed.
“Despite geopolitical shocks this year, growth will likely remain tech-driven and robust, as the global artificial intelligence [AI] boom continues and domestic demand picks up,” the ADB said.
The Middle East conflict should not significantly dent global semiconductor sales, which are projected to grow 26 percent this year, the bank said, citing World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.
Meanwhile, uniform US tariffs of 10 to 15 percent on Taiwanese goods would position the economy more favorably than its major trading rivals, benefiting from its traditional, non-tech sectors and boosting overall exports, it said.
Improving consumer confidence, continued fiscal support for households and minimum wage increases would also help raise consumer spending, the bank said.
Healthy exports and consumption would support investment in plant and equipment, as well as the restocking of depleted inventories, it added.
The ADB’s projected growth for Taiwan this year aligned with the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ estimate of 7.71 percent, and the central bank’s forecast of 7.28 percent.
It projected the economy to grow 4 percent next year, assuming AI-related demand growth moderates.
“For the medium term and beyond, sustaining growth momentum hinges on resolving demographic constraints and strengthening non-tech productivity,” the ADB said.
Taiwan’s headline inflation is projected to edge up to 1.8 percent this year and to 1.5 percent next year, the bank said.
The ADB said its projections were made under the scenario of an early stabilization in the Middle East conflict.
A prolonged conflict would disrupt export production, raise inflation, and reduce consumer and business confidence, as the economy is almost wholly dependent on imported fuel, the bank added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS