TAIPEI: Taiwan continues to face strong headwinds in 2016 as sluggish global growth holds back exports and weighs on consumption at home. Taiwanese imports contracted 13.1 per cent year-on-year in February, larger than the previous month’s revised 11.5 per cent fall, writes Chris Brewer. This was worse than the 8.3 per cent dip economists were expecting, albeit a marked improvement from a 22.8 per cent plunge in September last year.
Exports, which account for 70 per cent of Taiwan’s GDP, contracted 11.8 per cent, coming in 0.1 per cent below analysts’ expectations. In January exports had fallen 12.9 per cent. This is the ninth consecutive month of a double-digit contraction in exports.
Taiwan has long had a contentious political relationship with mainland China but now the economic one is posing a problem, too. The country is its biggest trade partner, accounting for just over a fifth of exports, but slowing growth on the mainland is also a risk for Taiwan. Taiwan’s trade balance expanded to $4.16bn in February, rising from $3.51bn in January coming in well above analysts’ expectations of $3.55bn.
