Excess savings in 2025 predicted to reach record high of NT$5 trillion

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) Taiwan's excess savings are expected to reach a record high of NT$5.424 trillion (US$172.55 billion) in 2025, as artificial intelligence (AI) business opportunities spur economic growth, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday.

Excess savings refers to the difference between a country's gross domestic savings and gross domestic investments, often indicating the country's idle funds.

However, Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰), head of the DGBAS's Department of Statistics, said that the funds are not necessarily "idle," but could be invested in the stock market or for other uses.

Instead, as Taiwan's economy is export-oriented, its current account is often in surplus, meaning its export values are higher than its imports, spurring excess savings, said Tsai.

The AI boom has spurred Taiwan's export performance in 2025, prompting the DGBAS to raise its annual growth forecast to 7.37 percent, the highest in 15 years, he said.

The annual export orders are projected to reach over US$600 billion, a 31.58 percent growth from 2024, he added.

The rapid growth of excess savings in recent years -- surpassing NT$3 trillion in 2020, NT$4 trillion in 2024, and projected to exceed NT$6.2 trillion in 2026 -- reflects the sharp expansion of Taiwan's current-account surplus, rather than insufficient investments, Tsai said.

Taiwan's gross investment soared to a record high of NT$6.9 trillion in 2024, with the numbers expected to reach NT$7.2 trillion in 2025 and NT$7.4 trillion in 2026, he noted.

Based on these figures, gross investment is projected to grow by 4.35 percent in 2025 and 2.78 percent in 2026, compared with an estimated increase in excess savings of about 25 percent in 2025 and 14.39 percent in 2026.