The nation’s export orders saw a record decline last month, with orders to the US, Europe and China all experiencing record single-month retractions, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Export orders fell 41.67 percent year-on-year to US$17.68 billion last month, following a drop of 33 percent the previous month, the ministry’s latest data showed. Last month’s figure represented a drop of 14.96 percent month-on-month.
Orders to the US, Europe and China fell by 36.75 percent, 30.73 percent and 54.71 percent respectively from the same period last year to US$4.56 billion, US$3.69 billion and US$3.66 billion.
“China, which typically accounts for one-third of the country’s export orders, ranking No. 2, was replaced by Europe and moved to the No. 3 spot in January,” Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press briefing yesterday.
Furthermore, the top three industries in terms of export orders — telecommunications, consumer electronics and precision instruments — declined an average of 50 percent, Huang said. Telecommunications orders fell 30.47 percent to US$4.37 billion, consumer electronics orders dropped 38.85 percent to US$4.26 billion and precision instrument orders were down 61.13 percent to US$1.04 billion.
Meanwhile, the ministry said domestic manufacturers also saw a record decline in industrial production last month after many companies shut down factories or forced employees to take unpaid leave to cope with the economic downturn.
Industrial production plummeted 43.11 percent year-on-year, following a 32.3 percent decline in December, the ministry’s data showed.
Of the top five industrial categories, manufacturing, showed the largest year-on-year decline in industrial production at 44.71 percent, followed by mining, construction, power generation and water supply.
“We anticipate mild improvements in export orders and industrial output for this month because of more working days in the month as well as last-minute rush orders from China. But keep in mind rush orders are unplanned in nature and we therefore do not know how long they will last,” Huang said.
Of local companies polled, Huang said 22 percent expressed slight optimism for this month.
“Although 22 percent is low, it is better than what we had for January,” he said.
Both the latest export orders and industrial production data were worse than Citigroup’s forecast, which predicted yearly declines of 35 percent and 37.5 percent each for last month.
While last month’s figures were affected by the Lunar New Year holidays, “the outlook for the domestic economy continues to be very downbeat in the first quarter,” Citigroup economist Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂) said in a research note yesterday.
“This supports our view that real GDP growth will likely plunge by 8.2 percent year-on-year in the first quarter — similar to the minus 8.36 percent [seen] in the fourth quarter,” Cheng said.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last Wednesday it expected the economy to contract 6.51 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN CHEN
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS