The cost of crude oil imports, worth some US$4.049 billion between Jan. 1 and Feb. 28 this year, saw a remarkable increase of 119.6 percent over the year-earlier level as a result of spiraling crude oil prices, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Crude oil imports constituted 13.2 percent of the nation's import trade in the January-February period, second only to the import of electronic products, which accounted for 19.3 percent of Taiwan's import trade in the two-month period with a value of US$5.905 billion, ministry officials said.
Imports of capital goods as a whole, including machinery and aircraft, amounted to US$5.041 billion in the first two months, marking a decline of 9.5 percent from the year-earlier level.
According to the latest ministry tallies, the nation exported US$8.792 billion worth of electronics products in the January-February period, marking growth of 26.6 percent over the same period of last year. The figure also constituted 27.2 percent of export trade in the period, making electronics products the country's major foreign exchange earner.
Exports of optoelectronic products totaled US$2.816 billion in the first two months, up 87.6 percent over the year-earlier level, while exports of electrical machinery amounted to US$1.782 billion, up 36.8 percent, ministry officials said.
Nevertheless, exports of information technology and telecommunications products, iron, steel and related products declined in the January-February period compared with the figures posted in the same period of last year.
The amount of foreign trade stood at US$62.9 billion in the January-February period, with exports totaling US$32.31 billion and imports amounting to US$30.59 billion, representing growth of 14 percent and 15.3 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year.
As a result, the nation secured a trade surplus of US$1.73 billion in the first two months of this year, marking a decline of US$90 million from the year-earlier level, ministry officials said.
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