The National Development Council (NDC) says that although Taiwan’s economic growth dropped to 1.4% for 2023, it remains competitive with many of its neighbors.
Looking at economic growth over a four-year period from 2020-2023, Taiwan’s average growth rate was 3.5%, which exceeds the 2.83% growth from the pre-pandemic period of 2016-2019. Furthermore, between 2020 and 2023, Taiwan showed the best performance among the “Four Asian Tigers”, with economic growth in South Korea at 1.9%, Hong Kong at -0.1%, and Singapore at 2.45%.
Statistics from the Directorate General of Budget show that Taiwan had a weak fourth quarter, with performance about 5% lower than expected, dragging down the whole year’s average. The NDC says manufacturers continued to try and offload surplus stocks in the last quarter and investment was weak.
On the positive side, exports grew for the last two consecutive months of 2023, and increased global demand has led to more positive predictions for 2024. The NDC says that the expansion of emerging industries such as artificial intelligence (AI) and high performance computing (HPC) could improve Taiwan’s export momentum.
The NDC adds that international institutions such as S&P Global, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as domestic think tanks such as Chung-Hua Institution of Economic Research, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, and Academia Sinica have all forecast Taiwan’s economic growth will exceed 3% in 2024.