Taiwan's export orders fell for the eighth straight month in November, with prospects expected to stay bleak in coming months as the trade-dependent economy grapples with recession. The downtrend in Taiwan's export orders - a leading indicator of demand for Asia's exports and for hi-tech gadgets - contrasts with what is usually a peak holiday season of demand-driven cheer as a slowdown in China and weak global demand depresses the island's key technology shipments. The economics ministry, which issued the data, said the value of orders in December could be lower than November, which was the steepest year-on-year fall since August. "December export orders are likely to reach around $40 billion, which would be an on-year decline of around 10 percent," Lin Li-jen, chief of the statistics department of the economics ministry, told a news conference. "The chance for orders to contract in the first quarter of next year is very large," she added. November's contraction was worse than a 5.7 percent on-year decline estimated in a Reuters poll. It came after Taiwan's central bank unexpectedly cut rates last week for the second time this year due to a slower-than-expected global recovery and in a bid to stimulate flagging domestic growth. The data underlines concern for the island, which slipped into recession in the third quarter, and with the economy at risk of losing more momentum in the fourth quarter. "Orders from December into February next year won't be good because there is no obvious change for the better in China's situation," said Kevin Wang, analyst at Taishin Securities Investment Advisory in Taipei. November orders from key markets mostly worsened compared with October. The contraction in orders from China in November halved from October's pace, but were still down nearly 5 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, orders for information and communication products in November fell 0.4 percent from a year earlier, reversing October's double-digit gain. Taiwan's export orders typically lead actual exports by two to three months. A lot of orders are sent to factories in China that are run by Taiwan companies, and from there are exported to end markets such as the United States and Europe. The government has lowered economic growth forecasts for Taiwan this year and next due to softening demand for smartphones and other tech gadgets. Earlier this month, China reported worse-than-expected exports for November, dampening hopes that the world's second-largest economy would level off in the fourth quarter and spelling more pain for its major trading partners.