Taipei, Oct. 22, 2012 (CENS)--After having declined for six consecutive months, Taiwan's export orders received by Taiwan's traders and manufacturers inched up 1.9% to US$37.66 billion in September, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
In the first nine months, export orders racked up 1.1% growth. Lin Li-chen, chief statistician of the MOEA, reported that export orders in the fourth quarter may also achieve positive growth.
Exports in September jumped 10.4% to US$27.1 billion. The simultaneous turnaround of exports and export orders in September, following six months of consecutive decline, signaled the upturn of Taiwan's economy.
Lin Li-chen, though, estimated that export orders in October will drop slightly year-on-year to US$37-37.8 billion.
Due to the low comparison base last year, odds for the growth of export orders in the fourth quarter are high.
Sun Min-teh, director of economic forecast center, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, pointed out that in view of the upturn of export orders, Taiwan's exports in the fourth quarter will have a better performance. The better performance, though, may just represent a rebound of the economy at the bottom, due to the adverse external environment, including the protracted Euro-debt crisis, financial plight of the U.S., and the ambiguous policy of mainland China during the transitional period of leadership handover.
Sun pointed out that following the presidential election in November, the U.S. economic policy will become clearer, adding that the first quarter next year will be critical for economic development.
MOEA statistics show that the leading three items for export orders in September were information and communications technology products, electronic products, and electronic equipment. Thanks to rollout of new products, export orders for both tablet PC and smart phones in September were higher than August. Export orders for electronic products advanced 2.2% year-on-year. Although export orders for information and communications technology products still dropped 1.7% year-on-year, the scale of decline was smaller than August.
Thanks to strong demand from mainland China, resulting from the effect of the Oct. 1 holiday and the Chinese government’s subsidy for energy-saving home appliances, export orders for precision equipment leaped 12.5% year-on-year to US$3.55 billion in September, a record monthly high.
(by Philip Liu)