Merchandise trade surplus widens in December

Latest reading: In December, the trade balance was USD +19.4 billion, following a USD +16.1 billion reading in the prior month. Over the last 12 months, the trade balance summed to USD +157.1 billion. Exports rose 43.4% in annual terms in December, following a 56.0% increase in the previous month. Exports rose by double digits to all key trading partners, with sales to the U.S. increasing the most. As in past months, higher sales of IT products—linked to the boom in global AI demand—drove exports. Imports were up 14.9% in year-on-year terms in December, following 45.0% growth in the prior month.

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Taiwanese merchandise imports projections for the next ten years from a panel of 5 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable merchandise imports forecast available for Taiwanese merchandise imports.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Taiwanese merchandise imports projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Taiwanese merchandise imports forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.