Taiwan exports drop for 14th month

Taiwan's exports dropped 11.4 percent year on year in March, down for the 14th month in a row, the local finance authority said in a statement Monday.

The decline has now being going for as long as that which followed the 2008 financial crisis. Exports stood at 22.7 billion U.S. dollars last month, compared with 18.2 billion U.S. dollars for imports, which have plunged 17 percent in the last year.

In the first quarter, exports dropped 12.1 percent to 62.7 billion U.S. dollars, while imports dropped 14 percent to 50.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Exports to the Chinese mainland, the largest export destination for the island, dropped 16.7 percent in the first three months to 15.4 billion U.S. dollars, representing 24.6 percent of the total.

The agency said unclear global economic prospects and fierce competition would continue to weigh on the island's exports, and forecast that export declines may gradually narrow in the second quarter. Endi