Outside TSMC, ordinary Taiwanese remain detached from its bonuses, Taiwan's 10% growth

Taiwan's GDP growth projection for 2026 was raised to 10.16% by the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica, a 6.45-percentage-point increase from its December forecast, driven by a global AI investment boom and demand for advanced chips and servers. The first quarter saw a 14.5% year-on-year GDP jump, and the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research forecast 10.35% growth on July 22, but ordinary Taiwanese remain detached from the benefits.

From 3.71 percent to 10.16 percent. When the Institute of Economics at Academia Sinica, Taiwan’s foremost national research institution, released its projection for the country’s annual gross domestic product GDP growth in 2026 last month, it represented a staggering 6.45-percentage-point increase from its previous projection made in late December. Such a rate of growth is rarely seen in advanced economies and may even seem downright unrealistic. If Taiwan does exceed a 10 percent growth rate, it will be the first time the country has seen a double-digit growth in 16 years, since 2010. The nation’s GDP already jumped 14.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, fueled by a global investment boom in artificial intelligence AI , while demand for advanced chips and servers is projected to persist into the second half of the year. The glossy growth outlook did not stand alone, as other economic research institutes issued similarly optimistic projections. On July 22, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research CIER forecast Taiwan’s economic growth at 10.35 percent for th