Economy grew 3.97% in third quarter: DGBAS

HEIGHT:
The higher-than-expected GDP growth was driven by global demand for artificial intelligence and smartphones, as well as rising shipping rates.

• By Crystal Xu / Staff Writer

Taiwan’s economy grew 3.97 percent last quarter from a year earlier, beating the government’s forecast by 0.76 percentage points, as exports were stronger than expected, the General Administration of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.

The figure could lift economic growth to 4.1 percent this year, the highest in three years and better than the 3.9 percent growth the statistics agency forecast in August.

Exports of goods and services, the main driver of growth, rose 8.67 percent during the July-September period, driven by robust global demand for electronics used in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and next-generation smartphones, DGBAS said.

Photo: CNA

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest suppliers of artificial intelligence chips, servers, storage, memory and other devices.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電), whose clients include Nvidia Corp, Apple Inc, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Intel Corp and other tech giants, recently posted strong third-quarter results and gave rosy business forecasts for the quarter and beyond. years.

TSMC Chairman CC Wei (魏哲家) said the demand for AI is real and still in its early stages, adding that he expects it to benefit the chipmaker over the next five years.

Similarly, ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s largest chip packaging services provider, yesterday posted third-quarter profit of NT$9.67 billion (US$301.9 million), up 24 .27 percent and 10.14 percent more than in the previous quarter. quarter and year earlier.

Domestic shipping lines also reported strong growth, albeit for different reasons, DGBAS said, as a decline in container shipments caused by the Red Sea rerouting boosted freight rates and profitability for Taiwanese container shippers, including Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. (陽明海運) and Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運).

Private consumption rose 1.92 percent from a year earlier, while retail and restaurant sales rose 2.47 percent and 0.87 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, according to DGBAS.

The agency attributed this to a stable labor market, rising wages and a rally in the stock market, the agency said.

Capital formation, which slowed in the first quarter and in recent years, rose 15.27 percent year on year after recovering 14.78 percent in the second quarter, the agency said.

The government has accelerated the construction of infrastructure projects, while private enterprises have been actively purchasing capital equipment abroad to expand capacity and meet business needs, it said.

The upward trend should continue until the end of the year as the current quarter is a high sales season for consumer electronics products, it said.

DGBAS will formally review and update its GDP forecast this month.