taipei feb 20 reuters  taiwans export orders in january contracted from a year earlier for a fifth month in a row though at a slower pace hit by a continued slump in chinese demand and weaker global consumer spending due to inflation and interest rate rises the islands export orders a bellwether for global technology demand had been 193 lower than a year before at 4751 billion the ministry of economic affairs said on monday that beat analysts expectations for a 250 decline januarys drop followed decembers 232 annual fall with last months orders also affected by the long lunar new year holiday which fell in january in both taiwan and china however orders for telecoms products rose 98 from a year earlier  the strongest rise since last june  thanks to an improving supply chain situation in china the ministry said orders for electronic products fell 218 though the decline was offset by demand for chips for highperformance computing and automobiles it added huang yuling director of the ministrys statistics agency told reporters that 70 of more than 2000 companies it had surveyed had seen no effect from the end of chinas pandemic controls because demand in the general environment remained weak while semiconductor demand driven by new technologies would help orders in the traditional low season in the first quarter the downside risks of the global economy are still high which may affect the performance of export orders the ministry said the ministry added that it expected export orders this month to be lower than in february 2022 by between 69 and 108 taiwanese firms such as taiwan semiconductor manufacturing co ltd 2330tw  are major suppliers to apple inc aaplo qualcomm inc qcomo and other global tech companies taiwans january orders from china were 459 lower than a year earlier versus the annual fall of 377 seen in december china late last year largely abandoned a stringent zerocovid policy that had led to widespread public frustration with lockdowns and damage to its economy the worlds second largest taiwans orders from the united states in january fell 147 from a year earlier the exact same rate as in december export orders from europe rose 183 versus decembers annual fall of 239 orders from japan contracted 6