Exports last month rose 9.6 percent from a year earlier to US$28.1 billion, hitting its second-highest level in history, driven mainly by strong global demand for Taiwanese electronics products, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The level recorded last month was an increase of 5 percent from August, the ministry said in its monthly report.
Last month’s results also showed a year-on-year increase for the seventh consecutive month, leading exports in the first eight months to rise 3.4 percent from the same period last year to US$208.24 billion, its highest level for the period, the report said.
“Exports last month were higher than our expectations, mainly on the back of stronger momentum in shipments of electronic products,” the ministry’s Department of Statistics Director Yeh Maan-tzwu (葉滿足) told a press conference in Taipei.
Electronics exports — the nation’s largest export sector — totaled US$9.23 billion last month, a jump of 20.6 percent in comparison with the same period last year to reach its highest level in history, the report’s data showed.
The strong electronic exports further helped boost growth level of overall exports by 6.1 percentage points, among the 9.6 percent year-on-year expansion, Yeh added.
Outbound shipments of base metals and their articles, mineral products and machinery all showed about 10 percent growth last month from a year earlier, with optical equipment seeing a 3.1 percent rebound, ending 12 months of year-on-year contractions, statistics showed.
In terms of export destinations, shipments to Asia hit a fresh high of US$23.13 last month, up 10.6 percent from a year earlier, with those to other markets also showing a year-on-year increase in general, the ministry’s report said.
Last month’s results led Yeh to maintain confidence that annual growth of exports during the July-to-September period may reach or surpass the target of 3.59 percent forecast by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics last month.
Tony Phoo (符銘財), a Taipei-based economist at Standard Chartered Bank, also expected the current export rebound momentum to spread to the wider economy in the second half of the year, following the launch of various new gadgets and mobile devices.
The ministry’s report showed that imports last month came to its strongest level since January last year at US$24 billion, down 0.7 percent from the previous month, but significantly up 14.1 percent from the same period last year.
Phoo attributed the year-on-year rebound in imports on the 19 percent increase in consumer goods last month from a year earlier, which is considered a vote of confidence in terms of consumer spending.
Imports of capital goods and raw materials were also up 10.6 percent and 13.9 percent respectively last month, suggesting further derivative demand from local exporters in the near future, the report said.
For the first eight months of the year, imports rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier to total US$185.37 billion, ministry statistics showed.
Due to the stronger year-on-year rebound in imports than exports, the nation’s trade surplus shrank to US$4.11 billion last month, a decrease of US$490 million from the same period last year, with the trade surplus in the first eight months amounting to US$22.87 billion, the ministry’s statistics showed.
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