The signs of a slowdown in Asia’s export boom spread to Taiwan, with a 3% growth in exports in October. That was the lowest rate of growth since September 2016, and follows a similar result in China. The main driver was likely to be the timing of the Golden Week holidays across the region, with shipments to China and Hong Kong having fallen for the first time since 2016. That may mean the export slowdown will be short-lived. At the product level IT/communications products dropped by 6% while electronic components also fell, including DRAM (memory) which slumped by 7%.