TW Biz News｜WK 04/28 - 05/04

Every week, we'll select Taiwan's five business news from the previous week for your review.

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• 〔Focus Taiwan〕Taiwan opens trade and investment center in Phoenix

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) The Taiwan Trade and Investment Service Center opened Friday in Phoenix, Arizona, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said. Economics Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) presided over the opening ceremony of the Phoenix center, Taiwan's second such facility in the United States after one in Dallas, according to the ministry.

• 〔Focus Taiwan〕S&P affirms Taiwan's AA+ rating, outlook stable

Taipei, May 2 (CNA) S&P Global Ratings has affirmed Taiwan's "AA+" long-term and "A-1+" short-term issuer credit ratings, citing the country's strong external asset position, healthy fiscal conditions and monetary flexibility. In a statement released earlier this week, the ratings agency said Taiwan's outlook over the next 24 months remained stable, supported by expectations that semiconductor exports will help offset pressure from geopolitical risks, the energy crisis and changing global trade conditions.

• 〔Taipei Times〕Taiwan’s Q1 GDP far better than expected at 13.69%

Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said.

• 〔hoodline〕Taroko Lines Up 31,000-Square-Foot Sports Playground For Park North

Taroko Sports, the U.S. arm of Taiwan-based TRK Corp, is moving into a big-box space at Park North on San Antonio’s Northwest Side with a roughly 31,000-square-foot indoor sports and entertainment complex. The venue is set to blend high-tech batting cages and pitching mounds with HitTrax swing suites, miniature bowling and arcade games, plus a full dining room and private party suites. City project paperwork shows the renovation is already under review, positioning the site as a potential new weekend hotspot for the area.

• 〔Taiwan News〕Taiwan ranked world’s happiest economy

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan retained its title as the world's happiest economy for the second-straight year on Hanke’s Annual Misery Index (HAMI) for 2025, published by Fortune. Steve H. Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, compiled the 178 most and least miserable economies by adding year-end unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates, and subtracting the annual percentage change in real GDP per capita, per Fortune.