Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
March 27, 2015
In February 2015, the Taiwan Business Indicators showed that the domestic economy remained broadly stable. Among the indicators compiled by the National Development Council (NDC), the trend-adjusted leading index decreased by 0.1%, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.22% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "green" signal.
1. The Monitoring Indicators: Total scores in February 2015 increased by one point to 24, flashing the “green” signal for the second month. Among the nine components, the TAIEX average closing price and the imports of machineries and electrical equipments each gained one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-red”, the sales of trade and food services gained one point to change its individual light from “blue” to “yellow-blue”, while the monetary aggregates M1B and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing each lost one point to change its individual light form “green” to “yellow-blue”. The light signal for the rest of four components remained unchanged.
2. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 99.6, down by 0.1% from January 2015. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, real monetary aggregates M1B, and TAIEX average closing price had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while the index of export orders, building permits, and the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator had negative cyclical movements.
3. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 100.62, down by 0.22% from January 2015. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real machineries electrical equipments imports, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, and real customs-cleared exports had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while electric power consumption, sales of trade and food services, the industrial production index, and nonagricultural employment had negative cyclical movements.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 101.81, up by 1.06% from January 2015. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the unemployment rate (inverted), and regular employees on payrolls in industry and services had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while loans and investments of monetary financial institutions and the interbank overnight call-loan rate had negative cyclical movements.
~~ The next release is scheduled for April 27 2015 ~~