Xinhua News Agency, Taipei, June 8 (Reporters Wu Jihai, Fu Shuangqi) The Taiwan authorities’ financial affairs department announced on the 8th that Taiwan’s May exports were US$27 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2%, and negative growth for three consecutive months; imports were US$22.28 billion, year-on-year Reduced by 3.5%. The mainland (including Hong Kong) is still Taiwan’s largest export market and the largest source of surplus.
From the perspective of export regions, Taiwan's exports to the mainland (including Hong Kong), the United States, and Japan rose in May, but continued to shrink to ASEAN and Europe. Among them, the amount of exports to the mainland (including Hong Kong) reached 12.12 billion US dollars, an increase of 10.3% year-on-year, accounting for 44.9% of Taiwan’s total exports. The mainland (including Hong Kong) continues to rank as the largest export market in Taiwan.
Taiwan achieved a surplus of US$4.72 billion in May, of which the surplus with the mainland (including Hong Kong) reached US$6.603 billion. The mainland is Taiwan’s largest source of surplus. Excluding the mainland market surplus, Taiwan’s import and export trade turned into a deficit.
Taiwan’s financial affairs department said that due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic dragging down global commodity markets, the export of goods with a higher proportion of raw materials continued to be sluggish. Although the demand for telecom products increased and the export of integrated circuits was booming, total exports in May were still higher than the previous year. The same month decreased by 550 million US dollars.
Looking to the future, the department said that with the gradual loosening of anti-epidemic control measures and the restart of economic activities around the world, coupled with long-distance business opportunities and emerging applications such as 5G communications, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, etc., it can moderately inject exports, but the new coronary pneumonia epidemic The extent and duration of the impact on the global economy is unpredictable. Taiwan’s foreign trade faces a high degree of uncertainty, and its outlook is biased toward prudence.