Taiwan's Economic Growth in Q3 2024

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan's trade-dependent economy grew more than expected in the third quarter of 2024, thanks to stronger demand for new applications such as artificial intelligence-related products.

Taiwan is a key hub in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and is home to the world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Gross domestic product grew by a preliminary 3.97% in the July-September period from a year earlier, according to the statistics agency on Thursday. This growth surpassed the 3.4% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll, although it was slower than the 5.06% expansion recorded in the second quarter.

Quarter-on-quarter, the economy experienced a seasonally adjusted annualised growth rate of 4.38%.

In the third quarter, exports rose by 8.04% compared to the same period in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous quarter's annual expansion of 9.9%.

Sluggish growth in China, Taiwan's largest export market, has not helped – the economy there saw the slowest growth since early 2023 in the third quarter.