Notes from Central Taiwan: Subsidies today, solvency tomorrow? Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei TimesAccording to Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) estimates, Taiwan’s social protection expenditure (SPE) in 2024 was NT$2.63 trillion (US$80.89 billion). Taiwan’s working age population peaked in 2015. After 1990, social spending began to outstrip it, driven by the competitive party dynamics under which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) sought to outbid each other for votes with increases in social spending. Notes from Central Taiwan is a column written by long-term resident Michael Turton, who provides incisive commentary informed by three decades of living in and writing about his adoptive country.

Source: Taipei Times March 01, 2026 16:28 UTC