Taiwan lifts 2025 growth forecast, defying US tariff worries
Gross domestic product is set to expand 4.45 per cent this year, the statistics bureau in Taipei said in a statement on Friday (Aug 15) – its first estimate since the Trump administration hit the archipelago's shipments with 20 per cent tariffs. The new figure is up from the 3.1 per cent predicted in May.
In a sign the government is confident demand for Taiwan's products will persist, the bureau predicted exports will rise 24.04 per cent this year, up from the previous call of 8.99 per cent.
Taiwan's economy has done well because its tech exports have been in great demand during the AI boom and companies front-loaded purchases before tariffs landed. The government in Taipei has said the 20 per cent tariff level is temporary and that it will continue negotiating with the US to get a better deal.
In its first forecast for next year, the statistics bureau said GDP is seen expanding by 2.81 per cent. The prediction for 2025 consumer price index was trimmed to 1.76 per cent, from 1.88 per cent.
The tariff blow could ultimately be smaller than feared for Taiwan. President Donald Trump has also said he planned to impose a 100 per cent levy on semiconductor imports but that firms investing in the US would be exempt.
A Taiwanese official said earlier that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing– the self-ruled archipelago's largest company and a key supplier of advanced chips to Nvidia and Apple – shouldn't be subject to those duties because it has plants in the US. BLOOMBERG
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