Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) yesterday said that the nation is expected to report a 10th consecutive monthly decline in exports, based on data gathered in the first three weeks of last month.
Last month’s exports are likely to register the sixth consecutive month of double-digit declines, marking the steepest downturn since the 2008 financial crisis, Chang said.
The ministry is scheduled to release last month’s data today.
Amid the multitude of factors leading to heightened uncertainties across global markets, it is difficult to discern when the current downturn might begin to abate, he said.
Factors include terrorist attacks, which have undermined consumption and tourism in Europe and the US, and the smaller-than-expected windfall for Taiwanese suppliers of Apple Inc following the launch of the US tech giant’s iPhone 6S series of smartphones, Chang said, adding that export orders had receded across the nation’s technology sector, particularly for display panels and other electronic components.
In addition, persistently low global crude oil prices have stifled the nation’s petrochemical exports, Chang said.
Aggregate exports in the first 10 months of the year fell 9.6 percent annually to US$236.31 billion. While exports had been declining at a double-digit pace since June, the pace of the contraction in October was milder than in the five previous months, ministry data showed.
Meanwhile, the European Central Bank’s decision last week to cut its deposit rates remains one of the few upsides in global markets, National Central University economics professor Chiou Jiunn-rong (邱俊榮) said, but he added that the effects of continued quantitative easing policies in Europe would likely be offset by expected interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve before the end of this year.
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