Exports last month contacted year-on-year for the second straight month, mainly due to sluggish demand from Asia, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
However, full-year exports may show a slight increase from last year, as outbound shipments this month and next month are both expected to reach US$25 billion, the ministry said.
Last month’s outbound shipments totaled US$26.12 billion, down 1.5 percent from a year ago, but up 3.4 percent from a month earlier, the ministry said in a report.
Cumulative exports in the first 10 months of the year stood at US$252.75 billion, an increase of just 1 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
“Combining data from the previous two months — the peak season for exports — outbound shipments this year have not been as good as those in previous years,” Yeh Maan-tzwu (葉滿足), director of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference.
Yeh attributed the year-on-year contraction in exports last month to declining shipments of optical products, mainly due to sluggish demand for flat panels in China.
Exports of optical products shrank 24.7 percent last month from a year ago, showing a contraction of more than 20 percent for the second straight month, because of continuing inventory adjustments for flat-panel products in China, the report’s data showed.
Other than the optical sector, most of the nation’s major export products saw shipments rebound last month, Yeh added.
The slower-than-expected shipments last month may lead the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) to cut its forecast for full-year exports at its meeting later this month, Yeh said.
However, she said she remained confident that exports this year would still record a slight expansion.
Hong Kong-based ANZ Research senior economist Raymond Yeung (楊宇霆) said the path to global recovery remains rough, expressing concern over Taiwan’s export competitiveness.
“As the growth outlook remains uncertain, the central bank will continue to keep interest rates low for an extended period,” Yeung said in a research note.
The ministry’s report also showed that imports last month stood at US$22.6 billion, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier and 1.3 percent from the previous month.
It was also the fourth month in a row that inbound shipments showed an annual drop.
Imports of capital goods fell 4 percent last month from a year earlier, reversing a 13.2 percent year-on-year gain in the previous month, suggesting that the outlook for investment remains uncertain, data showed.
The ministry said the declining pace in import prices could be the other major factor dragging down overall imports.
As a result, the trade surplus widened to US$3.52 billion last month, up US$270 million from the same period last year, data showed.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2