Year-end shopping spree lifts Taiwan's export orders in November

With the year-end shopping season approaching, Taiwan's exports staged a turnaround from the first half of the year and grew strongly in November.

Export orders increased seven percent from a year ago to 43.6 billion U.S. dollars in November, according to the island's economic authority on Tuesday.

That compares with a year-on-year growth of 0.3 percent in October. It also represented a growth of 2.2 percent from a month earlier.

A gradual recovery of the global economy and the approach of the year-end holiday shopping season have boosted demand for electronic products and information and communication products, said Lin Li-chen, an official with the economic authority.

The authority foresees that export orders for the semiconductor industry will remain stable, as companies build up their inventories to meet high demand during the upcoming Chinese New Year.

However, in the first 11 months, export orders fell 2.4 percent year on year to 403 billion U.S. dollars. Endi