Taipei, March 11, 2010 (CENS)--The recovering economy has pushed up Taiwan`s foreign trade, which has surged an annual 38.7% to US$32.49 billion in February, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

The export value reached US$16.69 billion, up 32.6% and the import came to US$15.8 billion, surging 45.8% for the fourth consecutive monthly rise, with the trade surplus totaling US$900 million.

However, the export and import values both dropped relative to those a month earlier. L.C. Lin, director of the Department of Statistics under MOF, indicated that the monthly decline in foreign trade is mainly due to the long Chinese New Year holiday, without which the export and import values actually rose a monthly 3.8% and 12.6%, respectively.

In the first two months the export value amounted to US$38.44 billion and import US$35.05 billion, both were the second highest of their kinds, with the former next to US$39.76 billion and the latter lower than US$36.56 billion recorded in the same period of 2008.

The January-February export value shot up 54% from a year earlier, the highest of its kind since 1977. Electronic product exports totaled US$10.97 billion, also the highest of its kind ever recorded.

The promising foreign trade so far this year has the Ministry of Economic Affair predicting Taiwan`s exports for the full year might grow an annual 15%, with the economic growth very likely to exceed 5%.
(by Judy Li)