Taiwan’s exports are likely to improve this month as the momentum of its information and communications technology (ICT) exports remains robust, British bank Barclays PLC forecast recently.
“We think an improvement in November exports of ICT products is likely, given that Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) will debut its new smartphone models running on Windows 8 in mid-November,” said Leong Wai-ho (梁偉豪), a Singapore-based economist at Barclays.
There should also be a boost from the recently launched Apple Inc products, such as the iPad mini and non-Apple tablet computers, given that the year-end holiday shopping season is approaching, Leong wrote in a report on Friday.
Furthermore, the panel sector is expected to improve on stronger overseas orders, he said.
The nation’s total exports fell 1.9 percent annually to US$26.53 billion last month, lower than the 3.5 percent increase Barclays’ had estimated and the market consensus of an expected 2 percent rise.
The disappointing exports stemmed from a larger-than-expected pullback in exports of electronic components, as well as the continued decline in shipments of ICT products, such as mobile phones and computers, Barclays said.
It further reflected the weakening market position of HTC handsets against competitors such as Samsung Electronics Co and Apple, bank officials said.
Additionally, in the first 10 months of the year, the nation’s trade surplus increased by 7.4 percent year-on-year to US$22.87 billion, the Ministry of Finance reported on Thursday.
Exports during this period dropped by 3.7 percent from one year earlier to US$250.13 billion.
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