Taiwan's industrial production continued to decrease sharply at the beginning of the second quarter, mostly driven by a plunge in manufacturing output, preliminary data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed on Tuesday.
Separate official data showed that retail sales growth eased for the first time in three months in April.
Industrial production fell 22.86 percent year-on-year in April, which was worse than the revised 16.03 percent decrease in the previous month. Production has been falling since June last year.
Among the main sectors, manufacturing output declined the most, by 23.52 percent annually in April, followed by the electricity and gas supply segment with a 12.02 percent fall.
On the other hand, mining and quarrying output grew marginally by 0.66 percent in April compared to last year.
On a month-on-month basis, industrial production slid a seasonally adjusted 5.09 percent from March, when it dropped by 1.16 percent.
Another report from the statistical office showed that retail sales advanced 7.50 percent annually in April, slightly below the 7.63 percent gain in the prior month.
Sales of textiles and clothing in specialized stores grew markedly by 29.37 percent yearly in April, which was only 1.27 percent in March.
Meanwhile, sales of food, beverages, and tobacco in specialized stores logged an annual decrease of 2.0 percent.
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