Exports jumped 20.5 percent year-on-year last month as trade with Asian countries remained active despite an economic slowdown in the US, Taiwan’s second-largest trade partner, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The export volume hit US$23.6 billion last month, the second highest in history, while imports stood at US$21.38 billion, or a rise of 17.6 percent from a year ago, said Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s Department of Statistics.
Both figures have been on the rise since last September and it is the 27th consecutive month the country posted a trade surplus that widened to US$2.21 billion last month from a revised US$1.4 billion a year earlier, the ministry’s report said.
Hsu attributed the trend to rising demand from Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, India and Southeast Asia that rallied more than 23 percent.
Shipments destined for Europe also picked up 10.7 percent, he said.
Hsu depicted the statistics as a sign of continuing export growth, although he noted that shipments to the US declined 3.6 percent last month, after rising 2.2 percent the previous month.
“US economic activities remain weak because of the subprime crisis,” Hsu said.
“But [Taiwan] has continually performed dynamically in foreign trade by increasing its dependence on emerging markets in recent years,” he said.
Exports to India soared 45.5 percent between January and last month, the ministry’s report showed, adding that sales to China and Southeast Asia both shot up 26 percent during the same period.
Financial analysts shared Hsu’s opinion.
“Growing exports to emerging markets in China, Russia, India and elsewhere will help mitigate the impact of a slowdown in the US,” Peter Kurz, head of Taiwan research at Citigroup Inc, said on Bloomberg Television yesterday.
Sales of electronics to China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, have helped Taiwan weather fallout from the US financial crisis, which has reduced demand for Asian exports, Bloomberg said.
Sales to Japan gained 23.7 percent last month, climbing from 11.7 percent in April, the report said, adding that exports to Europe rose 10.7 percent.
Exports of electronics rose 12.8 percent last month, accelerating from a 3.1 percent gain in April.
Information technology and communications product exports increased 9.1 percent, after gaining 11.4 percent in April.
“The strength is mostly from Asia,” said Alan Liao, an economist at Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金) in Taipei.
“Taiwan’s economy remains stable, yet inflation remains the key risk throughout the region,” he said.
The economy grew 6.06 percent in the first quarter, as Taiwan joined Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia in reporting expansion that exceeded expectations with Asian trade buoying growth.
Taiwan’s trade and investment with China is poised to improve as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government works to lift a ban on direct cross-strait transport.
“As usual, strong demand from emerging markets boosted exports, while energy drove high imports,” Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗銀行) in Taipei, said yesterday.
‘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
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
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
RSS