Exports, imports soar to 16-month high


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archiv...2/09/2003465556

RECOVERY: The Ministry of Finance attributed the sharp increase in part to a low comparison base last year because of the financial crisis and Lunar New Year break
By Ted Yang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Feb 09, 2010, Page 12

Exports last month rose 75.8 percent from a year earlier to a 16-month high of US$21.7 billion, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday, adding that it was the third consecutive month that outbound sales had exceeded US$20 billion.

Imports also surged to a 16-month high of US$19.25 billion, up 114.7 percent from a year earlier, it said.

The resultant trade surplus totaled US$2.49 billion last month, down US$900 million from the same period last year, but up compared with December’s US$1.65 billion, the ministry said.

“Exports have shown signs of steady recovery,” Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞), head of the ministry’s statistics department, told a press conference, attributing the sharp increase to a low comparison base in the same period last year because of the financial crisis.

The Lunar New Year also fell in January last year, which resulted in reduced business activity, she said.

The ministry expects both exports and imports to show a strong increase in the following six months, as the nation’s external trade has shown signs of steady growth and given a low comparison base in the first half of last year, Lin said.

“Taiwan’s manufacturing industry and consumers were demanding more imports, as industrial production and private consumption recovers from the slump one year ago,” Olsen said.

MATERIALS

Last month’s imports of agricultural and industrial materials hit a record high of US$14.96 billion in 16 months, up US$1.03 billion, or 7.4 percent, from a month earlier, with minerals posting the biggest rise of US$460 million, or 11.1 percent, the ministry’s data showed.

Imports of consumer products totaled US$1.7 billion last month, the highest since January 1999, with sedans showing the largest growth of US$400 million, it showed.

Olsen said that Taiwan’s trade flows were recovering, and that the nation continued to “book healthy trade surpluses.”

Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citigroup Inc Taiwan, said last month’s exports and imports were much better than expected.

“It indicates a strong export momentum and bodes well for economic growth in the first quarter of this year,” Cheng told the Taipei Times by telephone.

Ma is doing a great job!

Not necessarily. It could be that this merely marks the recovery from a recession, rather than an actual economic boom itself.




After all, after things have been going down for a while, they tend to go up.

well, you have to give credit where credit is due.

he did improved china-taiwan tie and that push taiwan economy to recover faster than we thought.

Ma is a pretty decent guy...before he became president he use to be my friend's neighbour..his mother still lives there. Too bad he's not aggressive enough by character. Unlike Ah-Bien, that little devil used insinuation ie. sly methods to achieve his goals.