Taiwan said Tuesday that exports in June fell 30.40 percent from a year earlier, but there were hopes for the economy as the rate of slowdown eased due to growing demand for its key electronic products. Shipments for the month totalled 16.95 billion US dollars, down 7.39 billion dollars year-on-year, in the tenth consecutive fall, the finance ministry said. May saw a 31.4 percent year-on-year drop. Earlier data showed June imports dropped 33.50 percent from a year earlier to 15.18 billion dollars, leaving the island with a trade surplus of 1.76 billion dollars, the ministry said. That figure is up 16.9 percent year-on-year. Exports to China and Hong Kong fell 30.20 percent from a year earlier to 7.06 billion dollars, but were up 310 million dollars from May as buying of machinery and electronic products picked up. Sales of electronic goods fell 17.30 percent to 4.58 billion dollars over the same period, an improvement on the 18.6 percent dive reported in May. Lin Lee-jen, director of the ministry's statistics department said: 'Exports will return to growth in November, partly due to a lower base of comparison last year, if there is no further change to or impact' on the global economy. She said she expected demand from China for Taiwan's technology goods to remain strong. Shipments to the US were 29 percent lower at 1.87 billion dollars and sales to Japan fell 18.6 percent to 1.22 billion dollars. In the first half of 2009, exports fell 34.20 percent to 88.49 billion dollars from a year ago while imports were down 42.3 percent to 53.51 billion dollars. -- Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this story -- 