Steps to reproduce

Files

test.ts
const hello : string = "World";
tsconfig.json ( even empty file )
{}

Libs and Versions

tested with
@swc-node/register: 1.6 or 1.8 as well
and with node 18.17 and 20.11

Reproduce

run command
node --loader @swc-node/register/esm .\test.ts
What happens:

const hello : string = "World";
      ^^^^^
SyntaxError: Missing initializer in const declaration

Expected:
no errors

Remove tsconfig.json file and run the command again

node --loader @swc-node/register/esm .\test.ts

Result:
no errors

Side note

If you have the test.js and tsconfig.json file in a subfolder and run the command from parent folder where tsconfig.json is not present it will run.

pwd = testproject
src
|--- test.ts
|---tsconfig.json

It works if you run the command from one directory up if tsconfig.json isn't present in the folder you run the cmd
node --loader @swc-node/register/esm .\src\test.ts
Result:
no errors