Taipei: Taiwan’s tech companies helped push imports to a record in November, underscoring the AI boom’s outsized impact on the archipelago’s economy.
Monthly imports hit $47.97bn, the Ministry of Finance in Taipei said in a statement yesterday. The figure rose 45% from a year earlier, easily topping the 16.7% forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ministry said the increase was mainly related to the artificial intelligence supply chain, “increased demand stemming from export activities and higher equipment purchases.”
Taiwan’s economy has surged this year on demand for the semiconductors and servers needed to develop and run AI applications. Last month, Taiwan said it expected the economy to grow by 7.37% this year, which would be the fastest expansion since 2010.
“The imports number far exceeded consensus expectations so that comes as a surprise to us,” said Jeeho Yoon, an economist at BNP Paribas. “This should bode well for GDP growth in the fourth quarter as the data continues to surprise to the upside.”
BNP was raising its 2025 growth forecast for the Taiwanese economy to 6.6%, up from 5.3%, he added.
