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 and Nvidia, and 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, the statistics agency said on Thursday, beating the 3.4% growth forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll, but slower than the 5.06% expansion in the second quarter.
Quarter-on-quarter, the economy grew at a seasonally adjusted annualised rate of 4.38%.
Third-quarter exports rose 8.04% versus the same period in 2023, compared with the second quarter’s annual expansion of 9.9%.
Sluggish growth in China, Taiwan’s largest export market, has not helped – the economy there grew at the slowest pace since early 2023 in the third quarter.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard, Jeanny Kao and Faith Hung; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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