Taiwan's trade surplus narrowed sharply to USD 3.1 billion in March 2019 from USD 6.0 billion in the same month of the previous year, missing market expectations of USD 5.1 billion. Exports fell 4.4 percent to USD 28.7 billion, the fifth consecutive month of decline, due to lower sales of parts of electronic product (-13.3 percent), base metals (-7.5 percent), plastics & rubber (-3.8 percent) and machinery (-3.2 percent). Among major trading partners, exports dropped to China & Hong Kong (-14.8 percent) and ASEAN (-9.9 percent). Meanwhile, imports surged 6.6 percent to USD 25.6 billion, buoyed by purchases of machinery (51.8 percent), parts of electronic product (6.4 percent) and petroleum (5.3 percent). Imports rose from China & Hong Kong (16.1 percent), ASEAN (8.4 percent), Japan (11.3 percent), the US (14.1 percent) and Europe (4.5 percent). Balance of Trade in Taiwan averaged 1611.56 USD Million from 1981 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 6662.67 USD Million in September of 2017 and a record low of -847.44 USD Million in February of 2006.
Balance of Trade in Taiwan is expected to be 2500.00 USD Million by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Balance of Trade in Taiwan to stand at 4800.00 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Taiwan Balance of Trade is projected to trend around 3400.00 USD Million in 2020, according to our econometric models.