Nation's surplus declines by 85% from a year before

The nation posted a trade surplus of US$290 million for the first quarter of this year, marking a sharp decline of 85 percent from the year-earlier figure, according tallies compiled by the customs authorities.

The tallies show that Taiwan's exports and imports totaled US$42.85 billion and US$42.56 billion, respectively, in the January-March period, giving the country a trade surplus of US$290 million -- down by US$1.66 billion from last year's level.

Officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) , the Bureau of Foreign Trade and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council unanimously pointed to surging prices of crude oil and raw materials as the root cause for the trade surplus decline, which they said was most pronounced for last month.

Rising prices for oil, energy and raw materials helped the nation record larger trade deficits with Australia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia for the first quarter, the officials said, noting that Taiwan's trade deficit with Saudi Arabia for March grew by 28.2 percent year to year.

Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said she is optimistic that the country's trade deficits with these countries will gradually narrow, with the global oil price dropping to about US$50 a barrel for the time being.

According to Ho, Taiwan's export sector remains competitive despite the trade surplus decline for the first quarter resulting from increased imports. Taiwan exports still registered growth of 7.8 percent in value, she noted, attributing the increase to higher prices of export goods.

Citing the ministry statistics, Ho reported that the index in the nation's export product price rose by an average of 9 percent last year, ahead of South Korea's 7 percent. She claimed this is an indication that the country has improved in making value-added products.