Taiwan's Sales of Trade and Food Services Top NT$7tn in H1, 2014

Taiwan's sales of trade and food services in H1, 2014 hit a new high of NT$7.1 trillion (US$237.1 billion), with the sales for June up  4.1% year on year to NT$1.2 trillion (US$41.1 billion), according to the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), which attributes such impressive increase mostly to steadily improving domestic demand, fueled by the bullish local stock market, better job market, more popular-priced restaurants, and aggressive promotions.

According to deputy director of the statistics department, K.S. Yang, the island's sales of trade and food services rose for the 10th month until June this year, but stressed local demand had been growing moderately instead of briskly, with the ministry defining “brisk rate” as annualized rising rate of 8-10%.

In June Taiwan's sales of trade and food services increased annually 4.1%, with wholesale trade rising 3.6% to NT$865.4 billion (US$28.8 billion), retail trade gaining 5.5% to NT$333 billion (US$11.1 billion), food and beverage services growing 3.8% to NT$35.3 billion (US$1.1 billion), and dining-out sales climbing 4.5% to NT$29.8 billion (US$993.3 million).

The department ascribed the growth in wholesale trade mostly to the increased demand for mobile phones, computers, and LCD TVs, and the growing exports of stainless steel and iron bars. The retail trade growth was driven mostly by FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil and Taiwan's car market. The peak season for tourism and traditional rush to wed before the Lunar July 15 Ghost Festival drove the growth of the food and beverage trades.

The department said that the island's recent car-replacement boom had been driven by the recovering business cycle, bullish stock market, and dealers' vigorous promotions backed by discounts. In June, sales of cars and motorcycles amounted to NT$54.2 billion (US$1.8 billion) in Taiwan, a new high since Feb. 2011 and rising 17.8% YoY.

The statistics departmental data show that the island's retail trade grew on average of 4% per month in March-June, during which the island's food and beverage trades had grown steadily. The department predicts the retail and F&B  trades to grow further in July due to pre-Ghost Festival shopping, garment shopping and pre-summer-vacation boom. (KL)