Exports and imports hit record highs last month on the back of brisk demand amid global economic recovery, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Exports jumped 39.5 percent year-on-year to US$15.71 billion after growing 22.8 percent to US$14.07 billion in April, the ministry said.
Imports rose 52.5 percent year-on-year to US$14.5 billion last month, compared with a 25.7 percent increase to US$13.11 billion in April, the finance ministry said.
The previous record for exports was US$14.78 billion posted in March, while the old record high for imports was US$14.1 billion, also set in March.
The government is counting on surging exports to drive economic growth, which the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) predicts will accelerate to 5.41 percent this year from 3.24 percent last year.
For the first five months, exports amounted to US$69.53 billion, up 25.9 percent from a year earlier, while imports hit US$65.41 billion, an increase of 34.2 percent, according to the finance ministry's statistics.
"Exports are expected to perform well, driven mainly by electronics," said Joanne Yang, an economist at Yuanta Core Pacific Securities Co (
"The emphasis is still on China, on which our economic reliance is the greatest," Yang said.
Hong Kong and China remained the nation's two largest export markets last month, accounting for 37.9 percent of exports, or US$5.95 billion, the ministry said.
They are followed by the US with 16.1 percent of exports, or US$2.53 billion.
Exports to Europe rose to US$2.03 billion, or 12.9 percent of total exports.
Sales to Japan climbed to US$1.15 billion last month, or a 7.3 percent share.
Separately, the DGBAS yesterday said the consumer price index (CPI) rose for a fifth straight month last month, lifted by higher prices for oil-related products, meat and fruit.
The CPI -- a closely watched inflation barometer -- measures changes in retail prices of a constant market basket of goods and services.
It rose 0.89 percent last month from a year earlier, but down 0.08 percent from April, reflecting discounts on clothes and lower prices for fish and vegetables, the agency said.
Officials said the wholesale price index (WPI), which measures production costs, jumped 6.76 percent last month, up from April's revised growth of 4.85 percent.
The government said the rising cost of crude oil, metals and certain chemical ingredients lead to the WPI increase last month.
In the first five months of this year, consumer prices rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier, within the government's 0.8 percent average inflation forecast for this year.
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