Taiwan’s export falls for fourth month over second-wave fears

Bloomberg

Taiwan’s exports fell for a fourth straight month in June as officials warned global demand may struggle to recover in the face of a resurgent worldwide coronavirus outbreak and continuing trade tensions between the US and China.
Overseas shipments from Taiwan fell 3.8% last month, according to a statement from Taiwan’s Ministry of Finance. That compares to the median estimate for a 3.7% drop in a survey of economists.
Imports plunged 8.6%, leaving a trade surplus of $4.8 billion. Exports to Southeast Asia, Japan and Europe fell, while shipments to China and the US continued to grow. Taiwan’s exports slow for the fourth straight month.
Taiwan’s exports will “come under pressure” in the second half of the year due to a possible second wave of the global coronavirus outbreak and uncertainty surrounding the ongoing trade war between the US and China, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
Full-year shipments would likely contract compared to 2019 due to the impact of the coronavirus on worldwide demand for Taiwanese products and low raw material prices, the finance ministry’s statistics director Beatrice Tsai said at a briefing after the release of Tuesday’s data.
Exports rose 0.5% in the first half of the year, the biggest gain among Asia’s four “tiger economies”, according to Tsai.
The ministry forecasts exports to shrink between 1.5% and 4% in July.