Taiwan’s foreign trade surplus increased notably in January from a year ago as exports grew faster than imports, preliminary figures from the Ministry of Finance revealed on Monday.
The trade surplus rose to $18.9 billion in January from $10.1 billion in the corresponding month last year. Meanwhile, the surplus decreased from $19.4 billion in December. The expected surplus was also $16.7 billion.
Exports surged 69.9 percent year-over-year in January, faster than the 43.4 percent increase in the prior month. Economists had forecast 51.9 percent growth.
Shipments of information, communication, and audio-video products grew 129.8 percent, and those of electronic product parts rose by 34.0 percent.
The annual growth of imports eased sharply to 63.6 percent from 14.9 percent. That was well above the 40.9 percent growth expected by economists.
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