Growth in export orders expected to be smaller this year

Export orders last year rose 16.74 percent to US$299.31 billion from 2005, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

Last month's export orders, indicative of actual shipments in one to three months, increased 7.32 percent year-on-year to US$26.39 billion, it said.

But the value compared with US$27.22 billion in November and a record high of US$27.29 billion in October when it registered a 10.88 percent rise year-on-year, the ministry's statistics showed.

"Orders are expected to grow about 10 percent this year," Chang Yaw-tzong (張耀宗), the ministry's statistics chief said. "Demand from the US may only be moderate."

The government's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics on Nov. 23 forecast the nation's export growth would slow to 6.1 percent this year, from 12.5 percent last year.

Export orders for information technology and communications products last month totaled US$6.24 billion, up 16.85 percent from a year earlier, it said.

Orders for electronics products totaled US$6.01 billion, up 8.36 percent year-on-year.

The ministry said export orders from the US last month amounted to US$6.87 billion, up 0.91 percent year-on-year.

Orders from Hong Kong (including China) last month rose 18.88 percent year-on-year to US$6.67 billion, while orders from Japan dropped 22.55 percent to US$2.53 billion.

Orders from Europe reached US$5.12 billion, up 24.82 percent from 2005, the ministry added.

Industrial production, meanwhile, fell last month for the first time in 17 months, slipping 1.72 percent after rising a revised 1.85 percent in November, it said.