Taiwan Business Indicators in July 2012
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
August 27, 2012
In July 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 0.3 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.1% 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 131.1, up by 0.2% from June 2012. Its annualized six-month rate of change decreased by 0.3 points to 4.9%. 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, stock price index, average monthly overtime in industry and services, and index of export orders had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 131.3, up by 0.4% from June 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.1% to 97.2. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the sales index of wholesale, retail and food services, index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, real machineries and electrical equipments imports had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Nonagricultural employment, real customs-cleared exports, electric power consumption, and industrial production index had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 138.4, up by 0.3% from June 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.2% to 102.4. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index and interbank overnight call-loan rate had positive cyclical movements from previous month. The unemployment rate (inverted), regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in July increased 1 point to 16. The overall light signal flashed the "blue" signal for the ninth consecutive month. Among the nine components, imports of machineries, electrical equipments gained one point and changed its individual light signal from "blue" to "yellow-blue". The light signals for the rest of eight components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for September 27 2012 ~~