TAIPEI: Taiwan’s export growth in December hit a four-year high boosted by demand for technology goods, but was not enough to keep full-year shipments from contracting for the second year in a row and clouding the outlook for the trade-reliant economy.
The island’s tech-dominated manufacturers are nervous about the protectionist policies of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made trade a centrepiece of his campaign and has threatened to raise import tariffs when he takes office on Jan. 20.
“We cannot assess the exact impact. It is only after he takes office that we will know exactly how he will implement (his policies),” Beatrice Tsai, an official with Taiwan’s finance ministry, told a news conference on Monday.
Exports in December rose 14 percent from a year earlier, better than the 10.4 percent median forecast in a Reuters poll and accelerating from 12.1 percent in November. It was the fastest year-on-year pace since January 2013’s 21.9 percent gain.
Exports to China where many Taiwanese operate factories to export goods for processing before sending them onwards to consumer markets – leapt 21.4 percent in December from a year earlier, finance ministry data showed.
Shipments of electronic components, and the sub-category of integrated circuits, showed solid gains of more than 20 percent in December, ministry data showed.
But exports for all of last year contracted 1.7 percent, sharply narrowing from the 10.9 percent drop of 2015, marking the first back-to-back annual decline. Imports were down 2.6 percent last year, also a slower pace of decline from the 15.8 percent of 2015.
Goldman Sachs cautioned that rising trade barriers could limit export growth prospects in Asia this year, and it expects little monetary tightening in the region even if the Federal Reserve keeps raising interest rates.
