Taiwan said on Nov. 9 exports hit a year high in October on recovering global demand for information and communications products.

Shipments totaled $19.82 billion US dollars last month, up 3.9% from September, the ministry of finance said. October's export figures are 4.7% down from the $20.8 billion seen in the same month last year.

Imports last month dropped 6.7% year-on-year to $16.58 billion, yielding a trade surplus of $3.23 billion, up 6.9% from a year earlier.

Last month, exports in electronic products, which accounted for 29.4% of October's total exports, rose 5.5% year on year to $5.81 billion and sales of optical equipment lifted 19.4% to $1.64 billion.

Exports to China and Hong Kong rose 10.6% from a year earlier to $8.26 billion, while those to the U.S. fell 16.5% to $2.15 billion. Sales to Japan dropped 8% to $1.43 billion.

In the first 10 months of this year, exports fell 27.3% from a year earlier to $163.63 billion, while imports lost 35.2% to $138.37 billion.

The trade surplus for the 10 month period was $25.26 billion, a 115.4% increase.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009