Taiwan Trade Surplus Rises In February

(RTTNews) - Taiwan's foreign trade surplus increased notably in February from a year ago as exports grew much faster than imports, preliminary figures from the Ministry of Finance revealed on Monday.

The trade surplus rose to $12.8 billion in February from $6.6 billion in the corresponding month last year. Meanwhile, the surplus decreased from $18.9 billion in January. The expected surplus was also $14.6 billion.

Exports surged 20.6 percent year-over-year in February, though slower than the 63.6 percent jump in the prior month. Economists had forecast 28.8 percent growth.

Shipments of information, communication, and audio-video products grew 38.7 percent, and those of electronic product parts rose by 24.6 percent. Meanwhile, exports of chemicals logged a decline of 5.9 percent.

The annual growth of imports eased sharply to 6.8 percent from 63.6 percent. That was also below the 23.7 percent growth expected by economists.