Taiwan Trade Surplus Shrinks In March

(RTTNews) - Taiwan's foreign trade surplus decreased in March as imports grew much faster than exports, preliminary figures from the Ministry of Finance revealed on Thursday.

The trade surplus dropped to $6.95 billion in March from $7.91 billion in the corresponding month last year. Nonetheless, the surplus increased from $6.55 billion in February. The expected surplus was $7.90 billion.

Exports grew 18.6 percent year-over-year in March, much slower than the 31.5 percent surge in the prior month. Economists had forecast 8.45 percent growth.

Shipments of information, communication, and audio-video products climbed by 34.0 percent, and outflows of parts of electronic products rose by 19.3 percent.

The annual growth in imports was 28.8 percent versus 48.8 percent in February. That was well above the 14.1 percent rise expected by economists. Imports of machinery showed a sharp growth of 75.1 percent.