Preliminary figures from Taiwan's Ministry of Finance show that the nation's foreign trade surplus declined slightly in April, as imports increased at a faster pace than exports.
The trade surplus in April dipped to $6.46 billion, a decrease from the previous year's $6.83 billion during the same month. This also marks a decline from March's surplus of $8.68 billion.
April saw a 4.3% year-over-year growth in exports. This figure is a noteworthy slowdown compared to the 18.9% surge seen in the previous month. Economists had predicted a growth of 10.15%.
In the information, communication, and audio-video product sectors, shipments shot up by 114.6% annually in April. However, there was a 17.7% decrease in shipments of parts of electronic products.
In terms of imports, there was an annual growth of 6.6% in April, down from a 7.1% bounce back in March. This was lower than the 7.6% increase forecasted by economists.