The nation's export orders rose 20 percent to a record US$15.7 billion last month because of higher Chinese and US demand for the country's computer chips, flat-panel displays and other electronics goods.
The increase in exports orders reported by the Ministry of Econo-mic Affairs followed a 13 percent gain in November. Industrial production rose 12 percent last month from a year earlier.
Growth is "underpinned by robust exports" as well as "encouraging signs that domestic demand is starting to perk up," said Robert Subbaraman, an economist at Lehman Brothers Japan in Tokyo.
"Inventories are very lean and are in need of rebuilding," he said.
Taiwanese companies are benefiting from accelerating demand in China.
China is Taiwan's biggest overseas market, buying more than a quarter of the nation's exports.
Recoveries in the US, Taiwan's second-biggest export market, and Japan are also boosting growth.
EVA Airways Corp (長榮), which gets about half of its sales from air cargo, had its biggest quarterly profit for last year, it indicated on Monday.
The gain in industrial production compared with a revised 7.2 percent increase in November, the statement showed.
For all of last year, export orders climbed 13 percent, and industrial production rose 5.5 percent.
Orders from Hong Kong rose 25 percent to US$3.7 billion last month, the ministry said.
Most Taiwanese goods bound for China are shipped via Hong Kong.
Orders from the US rose 15 percent last month to US$4.2 billion. Orders from Europe increased 26 percent to US$2.6 billion and those from Japan rose 10 percent to US$1.6 billion.
Overseas orders for electronics goods rose 45 percent last month to US$3.4 billion and for telecommunications equipment rose 18 percent to US$3.2 billion.
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