Exports and imports in the first two months of this year surged to their second-highest level in history, with sales to China, including Hong Kong, hitting a record high of US$16.16 billion, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Exports in the first two months rose 54 percent from a year earlier to US$38.44 billion, only second to the US$39.76 billion posted in the same period in 2008, the ministry said.
“Both exports and imports in the first two months were close to the figures recorded in the same period in 2008, suggesting that the economy has fully emerged from the financial crisis,” Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), head of the ministry’s statistics department, told a media briefing.
Lin said the yearly growth in exports in the first two months posted the biggest amount for the same period since 1977.
Ministry data showed that exports to China, including Hong Kong, edged up US$7.43 billion, or 85.2 percent, compared with the same period last year, with electronics posting the biggest increase of US$2.7 billion.
Electronics also led all export categories in terms of total value, with shipments reaching a record US$10.97 billion and accounting for 28.5 percent of overall outbound sales.
Both exports and imports rose for the fourth consecutive month to US$16.69 billion and US$15.8 billion respectively last month, with the former seeing a yearly increase of US$4.11 billion, or 32.6 percent, and the latter seeing an increase of US$4.96 billion, or 45.8 percent.
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