Taiwan Business Indicators in August 2012
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
September 27, 2012
In August 2012, Taiwan Business Indicators showed the economic situation still faced many challenges. Among the indicators compiled by the Cabinet’s Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), the annualized six-month rate of change of leading index decreased by 0.8 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.2% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "blue" signal.
1. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the composite leading index stood at 130.1, down by 0.1% from July 2012. Its annualized six-month rate of change decreased by 0.8 points to 2.9%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, index of producer's inventory for manufacturing (inverted) had positive cyclical movements from previous month. SEMI book-to-bill ratio, building permits, real monetary aggregates M1B, index of export orders, stock price index, average monthly overtime in industry and services had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 131.2, up by 0.3% from July 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.2% to 97.2. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Nonagricultural employment, industrial production index, electric power consumption, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, real customs-cleared exports, and the sales index of wholesale, retail and food services had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 136.3, down by 0.2% from July 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.6% to 100.9. All six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had negative cyclical movements from previous month, which were the unemployment rate (inverted), the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, interbank overnight call-loan rate, inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in August lost 1 point to 15. The overall light signal flashed the "blue" signal for the tenth consecutive month. Among the nine components, nonagricultural employment lost one point and changed its individual light signal from "green" to "yellow-blue". The light signals for the rest of eight components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for October 26 2012 ~~