The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday that Taiwan’s GDP growth will top 10 percent this year, citing strong export performance during the current artificial intelligence (AI) boom.The research institute will release an updated Taiwan GDP growth forecast on Friday, TIER president Chang Chien-yi (張建一) said on the sidelines of an economic forum in Taipei. In late April, TIER raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth to 7.56 percent for this year, an upgrade of 3.51 percentage points from an estimate made in January.
Taiwan Institute of Economic Research president Chang Chien-yi speaks to reporters in Taipei yesterday.
TIER appears more upbeat than the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, which forecast in late May that Taiwan’s economy will grow 9.64 percent this year.Last week, Academia Sinica raised its forecast of Taiwan’s GDP growth from 3.71 percent to 10.16 percent, the highest among the local major research institutions.
Explosive global demand for AI applications has created tremendous business opportunities, Chang said.During the AI era, production capacity for AI-related chips such as graphics processing units and tensor processing units has been fully utilized, he added.In addition, AI services such as assembly services are also in high demand as supplies of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) advanced chip packaging services — particularly chip-on-wafer-on-substrate technology — are tight, Chang said."There is no question that business opportunities created by AI will continue," Chang said. "Such an uptrend will continue into 2028.""I expect Taiwan will also see strong economic growth next year," he noted.The recent sell-off among AI stocks in global markets came from growing concerns over an AI bubble. "Although some startups could go broke, the AI industry itself will continue to grow," he said.Addressing the forum, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said Taiwan can serve not only as a provider of AI hardware but also a provider of AI services.The government aims to cultivate 500,000 AI experts by 2040 to allow the technology to be used in all business sectors, thereby boosting Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, Kung said.
