Taipei, July 9 (CNA) Yuanta-Polaris Research Institute, one of Taiwan's leading economic think tanks, said on Tuesday that the pace of Taiwan's exports growth for the second half of this year will accelerate on the back of peak season effects, particularly in the U.S. and European markets.

Riding a buying spree in the U.S. and Europe during the second half, Taiwan's exporters will witness their sales picking up, with local electronics vendors expected to benefit the most from the uptrend, the think tank stated.

It added that a relatively low comparison base in the second half of last year will also accentuate the exports growth for the July-December period of this year.

Yuanta-Polaris said it expects Taiwan's exports for July 2013 to grow 8.7-9.6 percent from the same period last year, adding that exports growth will continue for the rest of the six-month period.

The think tank has turned upbeat about Taiwan's exports outlook after the Ministry of Finance released statistics on Monday, which revealed that the country's exports in June totaled US$26.48 billion, up 8.6 percent from a year earlier and 0.5 percent from the previous month.

Last month, Taiwan's imports rose 6.8 percent year-on-year and 6.1 percent from a month earlier to US$23.23 billion.

Yuanta-Polaris noted that last month's exports growth partly reflected outbound sales of locally made electronics devices, which rose 10.9 percent from the same period last year. Electronics products accounted for 28.6 percent of Taiwan's total exports in June.

The think tank said demand for high-tech devices is expected to continue to grow in the second half of this year as buying across the U.S. and European markets accelerates during the period.

It stated that import growth in June also showed that exporters were anticipating a rise in sales, as they have become more willing to buy raw materials and equipment for production expansion.

However, Yuanta-Polaris said, as the U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to wind down its ongoing bond buying program later in the year, the U.S. economy, the world's largest, and its demand could be affected by depleting liquidity.

Besides, the think tank pointed out, China, the second-largest economy in the world, is undergoing economic restructuring, which could slow down its demand.

China and Hong Kong accounted for 38.9 percent of Taiwan's total exports -- ahead of the U.S., which has a share of 10.4 percent.

(By Lin Hui-chun and Frances Huang)
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