Exports last month recorded another double-digit drop for the seventh consecutive month as demand from major trading partners remained weak, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
Outbound shipments last month declined 35.7 percent from last year to US$15.59 billion, while imports dropped 49.5 percent to US$12.17 billion, leaving a trade surplus of US$3.41 billion, the ministry’s latest data showed.
Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), head of the ministry’s statistics department, said yesterday that the contraction, while sizable, had slowed from the 37.2 percent decline in January and February combined (to factor in the holiday effect) and a 41.9 percent plunge in December.
“The trade volume marked an increase of US$2.99 billion from a month earlier, indicating the slump [in exports] is not worsening,” Lin said, attributing the improvement to rush orders for consumer electronic products from China.
Shipments to China, including Hong Kong, fell 37.5 percent from a year earlier to US$6.3 billion, while exports to the US and Japan sank 22.4 percent and 34.5 percent to US$2.04 billion and US$1.03 billion respectively, the report showed.
Exports to Europe and ASEAN countries dropped 36 percent and 44 percent to US$1.73 billion and US$2.07 billion respectively, the report said.
Electronics, basic metals, plastics, chemicals and other major export products saw declines of between 22 percent and 58 percent. Shipments of bicycles were the exception, rising 3.3 percent to US$858 million from a year earlier, the report said.
In the first three months of the year, exports dropped 36.6 percent from last year to US$40.55 billion and imports plunged 47.2 percent to US$32.06 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US8.49 billion.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), head economist at Citigroup Taiwan Inc, said that the quarterly drop was a cause for concern.
Cheng, whose firm forecast the nation’s GDP would contract 8.2 percent in the first quarter, said the final results might turn out worse than expected.
“Despite rush orders, exports deteriorated more sharply than in the fourth quarter, when the drop hit 24.7 percent and the economy contracted 8.36 percent,” Cheng said by telephone.
Cheng said he would not be surprised if GDP contracted by 10 percent in the first quarter, even though the government put the decline at 6.51 percent.
Meanwhile, Tony Phoo (符銘財), chief economist at Standard Chartered Bank who has forecast that the economy would shrink by 4.9 percent in the first quarter, said talks of a recovery were premature as the US and European economies, the main consumers of Taiwanese exports, have yet to stabilize.
Semiconductor business between Taiwan and the US is a “win-win” model for both sides given the high level of complementarity, the government said yesterday responding to tariff threats from US President Donald Trump. Home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp. Trump said on Monday he plans to impose tariffs on imported chips, pharmaceuticals and steel in an effort to get the producers to make them in the US. “Taiwan and the US semiconductor and other technology industries
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a pause in rate cuts on Wednesday, as policymakers look to continue tackling inflation under close and vocal scrutiny from US President Donald Trump. The Fed cut its key lending rate by a full percentage point in the final four months of last year and indicated it would move more cautiously going forward amid an uptick in inflation away from its long-term target of 2 percent. “I think they will do nothing, and I think they should do nothing,” Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis former president Jim Bullard said. “I think the
SMALL AND EFFICIENT: The Chinese AI app’s initial success has spurred worries in the US that its tech giants’ massive AI spending needs re-evaluation, a market strategist said Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) eponymous AI assistant rocketed to the top of Apple Inc’s iPhone download charts, stirring doubts in Silicon Valley about the strength of the US’ technological dominance. The app’s underlying AI model is widely seen as competitive with OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc’s latest. Its claim that it cost much less to train and develop triggered share moves across Asia’s supply chain. Chinese tech firms linked to DeepSeek, such as Iflytek Co (科大訊飛), surged yesterday, while chipmaking tool makers like Advantest Corp slumped on the potential threat to demand for Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators. US stock
Cryptocurrencies gave a lukewarm reception to US President Donald Trump’s first policy moves on digital assets, notching small gains after he commissioned a report on regulation and a crypto reserve. Bitcoin has been broadly steady since Trump took office on Monday and was trading at about US$105,000 yesterday as some of the euphoria around a hoped-for revolution in cryptocurrency regulation ebbed. Smaller cryptocurrency ether has likewise had a fairly steady week, although was up 5 percent in the Asia day to US$3,420. Bitcoin had been one of the most spectacular “Trump trades” in financial markets, gaining 50 percent to break above US$100,000 and
RSS