Last month’s exports declined from a month earlier on decreased shipments of plastic and petrochemical products mainly because of Typhoon Fanapi and a major industrial safety incident, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Exports fell 6.9 percent to US$22.4 billion from US$24.05 billion in August, with shipments of mineral products showing the biggest drop at US$300 million, followed by plastic products and optical equipment at US$270 million each.
“Typhoon Fanapi and the industrial security incident prompted exports of oil products and petrochemical goods to fall last month,” Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), head of the ministry’s statistics department, told a media briefing.
Exports fell month-on-month for the second time in the last four months, posting a five-month low at US$22.4 billion, the ministry’s data showed.
“Exports to the US and Europe fell month-on-month as expected amid reports of firms seeing orders failing to come through as strong as they should ahead of the year-end festive season,” Standard Chartered chief economist Tony Phoo (符銘財) said in an e-mailed statement.
Although exports to China, including Hong Kong, also fell last month after a strong rebound in August, Phoo said that demand in China appeared to remain robust compared with the sluggish recovery in the US and Europe.
On a yearly basis, exports rose 17.5 percent last month on increasing demand for electronic and communication products, the ministry said. That compared with a yearly gain of 26.6 percent in August.
The ministry’s latest data showed that exports amounted to US$70.35 billion in the third quarter, which was the highest for the same period in history. In the first nine months, exports totaled US$202.25 billion, up 40.6 percent from a year earlier, with sales of optical equipment showing the largest growth at 70 percent, the data showed.
Meanwhile, imports last month also declined 5.3 percent to US$20.6 billion from US$21.79 billion in August, because of decreased purchases of consumer goods, which dropped 9.1 percent month-on-month.
On a yearly basis, imports increased 25 percent last month, which was still lower than growth of 28 percent in August. Imports of capital equipment, however, rose 64.8 percent from a year ago to US$3.88 billion, the second highest in history.
“This suggests that confidence among local producers is improving due to a continuing revival in domestic demand that will also be positive for the overall job market outlook — even as hiring in the export manufacturing sector may stall,” Phoo said.
While the ministry yesterday expected exports in the current quarter, a traditional peak season, to remain as strong as the third quarter, Donna Kwok (郭浩庄), HSBC economist for Greater China, said the monthly decline in last month’s shipments indicated a fading low base effect and weak sequential growth momentum.
“If history is a guide, this down-trend is not done yet — hence our expectations for the central bank to take a pause in normalizing rates from now until the third quarter of next year,” she wrote in a press release.
Additional reporting by Kevin Chen
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