TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s exports likely rose for the 19th straight month in January, a Reuters poll showed, boosted by sustained demand for chips and hi-tech gadgets though at a slightly slower pace following the end of the Christmas shopping season.
Taiwan, a global hub for chip production and a key supplier to Apple Inc, is one of Asia’s major exporters of technology goods, and the trade data is seen as an important gauge of world demand for tech gadgets.
Exports last month were expected to rise 17.2% from a year earlier, a Reuters poll of 18 analysts showed, slower than the 23.4% gain in December.
The export forecasts ranged between a rise of 9% and 26%, reflecting uncertainties over the global economic recovery and ongoing supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Separately, the consumer price index (CPI) was expected to have risen 2.5% from a year earlier, easing from an increase of 2.62% in December.
The trade and inflation data will be both be released on Friday.
(Poll compiled by Devayani Sathyan, Md. Manzer Hussain and Carol Lee; Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kim Coghill)
