Exports last month showed a year-on-year increase for the sixth consecutive month, but were slightly lower than forecast on the impact of weaker-than-expected demand in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Exports totaled US$26.77 billion last month, up 5.8 percent from a year earlier, but down 0.1 percent from June, the ministry said in its monthly report.
That made a total of US$180.15 billion in outbound shipments for the first seven months of this year, representing an increase of 2.5 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
“We had expected exports to be higher last month, but the sharp year-on-year decline in the export of ICT products dragged down the figure,” Department of Statistics Director Yeh Maan-tzwu (葉滿足) told a press conference in Taipei.
ICT exports amounted to US$920 million last month, down 25.8 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level seen since September 2009, excluding seasonal factors during the Lunar New Year holiday, the report’s data showed.
However, the electronics sector — the nation’s largest export sector — saw its growth remain strong last month, Yeh said.
The value of electronics exports totaled US$8.48 billion last month, a jump of 16.7 percent in comparison with the same period last year.
Exports of integrated circuits were the the main driver of the uptick and were up 20.14 percent, reaching a record high of US$6.22 billion, the statistics show.
The global economic recovery has led demand for Taiwan-made products to rebound in the US and Europe, with demand from Asian markets also showing mild but steady gradual growth, Yeh said.
Yeh said the gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung on Thursday last week should have a limited impact on exports, as LCY Chemical Corp’s (李長榮) output accounted for less than 2.5 percent of Taiwan’s petrochemical sector.
The ministry’s report showed that imports came to US$24.16 billion last month, up 9.5 percent from the previous year but down 3 percent from the preceding month.
For the first seven months of the year, imports rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier to total US$161.36 billion, ministry statistics showed.
Due to the strong rebound in imports, the nation’s trade surplus shrank to US$2.61 billion last month, a decrease of US$630 million from the same period last year, with the trade surplus in the first seven months amounting to US$18.78 billion, the ministry’s statistics showed.
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