People walk past the Taipei 101 skyscraper. Taiwan’s economy grew at its fastest since 1987, with its gross domestic product expanding almost 13.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier. | REUTERS

Taiwan’s economy grew at its fastest since 1987, overcoming disruptions caused by the war in Iran as the island continues to ride demand for its tech products supporting the build-out of artificial intelligence computing.

Gross domestic product expanded almost 13.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, compared with about 12.7% in the previous three months, according to a statement by the statistics bureau in Taipei on Thursday. That exceeded all estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists, whose median was for a slowdown to 11.3%.

The statistics bureau attributed the better-than-expected figure to surprisingly strong exports, investment and private consumption.…