Taiwan's economic growth rate has gone haywire! Q1 year-on-year growth surged by 13.69%, marking a return to the "money flooding the ankles" era, but it's not for everyone.

Taiwan's Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced on April 30 that the preliminary economic growth rate for the first quarter was 13.69%, an upward revision of 2.23 percentage points from the February forecast, marking a new quarterly high in nearly 39 years since the third quarter of 1987. However, in 1987, money was "flooding the ankles," and everyone's feet were wet. In the 2026 version, perhaps only the tech export supply chain is soaking in the water. (Previous coverage: Asian stock markets close out April! Dragged down by crude oil, Taiwan stocks and Nikkei suffer painful falls, while Korean stocks hit new highs against the trend thanks to semiconductors) (Background supplement: Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) implements "TSMC Clause"! Single-stock holding limit for Taiwan stock funds relaxed to 25%, with up to 200 billion TWD in liquidity expected to pour in) The DGBAS announced the Q1 year-on-year economic growth rate: 13.69%. The reporters present probably all reflexively did the same thing: checking when the last time such a figure appeared. The answer is the third quarter of 1987, about 39 years ago. In 1987, Taiwan experienced the craziest asset bubble in history. Taiwan stocks surged from under 1,000 points to 12,000 points, housing prices doubled, illegal underground fundraising sprouted everywhere, and grandmothers in wet markets were discussing which stock would hit the daily limit the next day. That era had an old descriptor, "Taiwan money flooding the ankles," literally meaning there was so much money it flooded over the ankles, and everyone was stepping in the water. It was a bubble shared by the whole nation; exporters made money, factories raised wages, workers spent the money, housing prices rose accordingly, and every layer got a share. Every link in the capital flow was turning. The 13.69% in 2026 is a higher number, but the flow of money is completely different. Open Threads to search for salary income topics, and you will find Hsinchu Science Park wives and engineers talking about asset allocation, while other people in the service industry are complaining about bosses who don't even pay for labor and health insurance. The same platform seems to be two different worlds. Indeed, viewing Taiwan as a platform, it is also divided into two worlds. Looking closely at the DGBAS data, Q1 commodity exports grew by 51.1% year-on-year, capital equipment imports increased by 28.44%, with semiconductor equipment imports rising by 17.05%. UBS directly revised Taiwan's full-year GDP up to 8%, and the reason is one word: AI. This is not an era where all industries are flourishing; this is a tree growing so large it blocks out the sun, while all other trees die in its shadow. Taiwan's export structure has undergone extreme concentration over the past three years. AI servers, high-bandwidth memory, and advanced packaging—all the items driving the GDP surge point to the same supply chain. For engineers in Hsinchu Science Park and Southern Taiwan Science Park, an annual salary of over 3 million TWD is already the norm, but the monthly salary in traditional manufacturing is still struggling around 40k. This is no longer a question of continuing to surge on the base period of two consecutive years of high growth; it is a phenomenon born from long-term structural changes. The record-breaking export money has entered corporate accounts. But the money in corporate accounts has not flowed evenly into everyone's pockets. Another manifestation of money flooding the ankles is Taiwan stock ETFs. As of early 2026, the total scale of Taiwan stock ETFs exceeded 4.12 trillion TWD, a historical high. 00919 has seen its annualized dividend yield exceed 10% for 12 consecutive periods, and on April 27, seven of the top ten most traded stocks in the Taiwan market were ETFs. The FSC even implemented the "TSMC Clause," relaxing the single-stock holding limit for funds from 15% to 25%, because TSMC is so large that it would be impossible to legally hold a sufficient proportion without the relaxation. Retail investors use part of their monthly salary to buy high-dividend ETFs through regular savings plans. These ETFs are heavily weighted with TSMC, MediaTek, and Foxconn, which is equivalent to using wage income to bet on the companies where capital income is most concentrated. If this supply chain continues to soar and ETF dividends look good, retail investors have also hopped on the ride. According