Taiwan Business Indicators in February 2011
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
March 28, 2011
In February 2011, Taiwan Business Indicators indicated that the economy continued its steady growth. 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 0.6 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.3% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "yellow-red" signal.
1. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the composite leading index stood at 125.0, up by 0.04% from January. Its annualized six-month rate of change decreased by 0.6 points to 1.9%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, index of producer's inventory for manufacturing, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, index of export orders, average monthly overtime in industry and services, real monetary aggregates M1B, and building permits had negative cyclical movement from previous month. Stock price index had positive cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 135.9, up by 1.3% from January. Its trend-adjusted index increased by 0.3% to 106.4. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the industrial production index, real customs-cleared exports, nonagricultural employment, index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, real machineries and electrical equipments imports had positive cyclical movements from previous month. The sales index of wholesale, retail and food services and electric power consumption had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 135.3, up by 1.9% from January. Its trend-adjusted index rose by 0.9% to 105.9. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, unemployment rate, loans and investments of major financial institutions, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, interbank overnight call-loan rate, and the manufacturing unit output labor cost index had positive cyclical movements from previous month.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in February was down by 1 point to 33, flashing the "yellow-red" signal for the sixth consecutive month. Among the nine components, stock price gained one point and changed its individual light signal from "green" to "yellow-red", customs cleared exports gained two points and changed its individual light signal from "green" to "red". Imports of machineries and electrical equipments lost one point and changed its individual light signal from "green" to "yellow-blue", manufacturing sales lost one point and changed its individual light signal from "red" to "yellow-red", sales index of wholesale, retail and food services lost two points and changed its individual light signal from "red" to "green". The light signals for the rest of four components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for April 27 2011 ~~