The nation's exports last month continued to see robust demand from China and other Asian countries, compensating for sluggish demand from the US as a result of its subprime mortgage crisis, a Ministry of Finance official said yesterday.
"The nation's exports are expected to continue growing at a moderate pace, despite a global economic slowdown triggered by the US subprime crisis," Hsu Ray-lin (
Exports last month grew 18.5 percent year-on-year to US$17.66 billion, while imports rose 25.9 percent to US$15.95 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$1.71 billion for last month, the ministry's statistics showed. Taiwan has had a trade surplus for 24 consecutive months.
Exports to Hong Kong, China, six ASEAN member countries and South Korea all saw growth of more than 31 percent from a year earlier, while exports to Europe rose 11.8 percent year-on-year, the statistics showed.
Exports to China and Hong Kong combined rose 31.5 percent last month, the biggest gain since February 2006. Exports to the US, however, declined by 8.5 percent from a year earlier to US$2.04 billion last month.
Alan Tseng (
"February has always been a slow month for the nation's electronics exporters," he said.
After years of robust growth, it makes sense that exports would begin to see moderation, he said, adding that the nation's exports would not be hit hard by the decline in US consumption.
Tseng was also optimistic about the resilience of the nation's exporters, which he said would weather the US crisis.
He said the US' impact on the nation's exporters was not yet clear, as orders had not been cut substantially and an expected price cut late this month or next month to clear US inventories may not affect new orders.
Other economists, however, are less optimistic, saying that a sluggish US economy will eventually hurt Taiwan since exports to China are mostly components to be reprocessed and sold in the US and Europe.
Exports in the first two months of the year showed a combined expansion of 4.3 percent over the average monthly level in the fourth-quarter last year.
But "as global industrial activity is expected to stagnate during the first half of the year -- as the US economy remains weak and demand from other developed markets slows -- Taiwan's export sector will still have to struggle against global headwinds in the coming months," Grace Ng (吳向紅), an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co in Hong Kong, said in an e-mail yesterday.
Deutsche Bank economist Juliana Lee in Hong Kong also said the bank saw a continued risk to Taiwan's export sector, given the uncertain global financial market and slower growth in the US and Europe.
"Going forward, we think the export sector, which accounts for 50 percent of the GDP, is likely to remain below the trend," Lee wrote in an e-mail yesterday.
Meanwhile, the ministry's statistics showed that imports of industrial equipment such as machines and precision instruments rose 19.5 percent in the first two months from a year earlier, following a small decline of 0.8 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter.
That suggests a recovery in domestic private investment early this year, Cheng Cheng-mount (
However, surging consumer prices and a weakening global economic outlook could see households scale back, resulting in a drop in imports in the coming months, said Sumei Tang, a Sydney-based economist at Moody's Economy.com.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS