Taiwan Business Indicators in January 2013
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
February 27, 2013
In January 2012, Taiwan Business Indicators showed the domestic economy was gradually into stable, but still faced several 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 increased by 1.4 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.2% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the " yellow-blue" signal.
1. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the composite leading index stood at 137.3, up by 1.3% from December 2012. Its annualized six-month rate of change increased by 1.4 points to 9.7%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, index of export orders, building permits, index of producer's inventory for manufacturing (inverted), stock price index and real monetary aggregates M1B had positive cyclical movements from previous month. 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 135.1, up by 0.6% from December 2012. Its trend-adjusted index increased by 0.2% to 99.1. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, the sales index of trade and food services, electric power consumption had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, nonagricultural employment, industrial production index, and real customs-cleared exports had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 135.0, down by 0.2% from December 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.6% to 99.0. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had positive cyclical movement from previous month. The manufacturing unit output labor cost index, unemployment rate (inverted), inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, and interbank overnight call-loan rate had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in December 2012 was adjusted downward by one point to 22, following the revision of the manufacturing sales and the overall light signal was adjusted from “green” to “yellow-blue”. The total score in January was down by 3 points to 19, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the fifth consecutive month. Among the nine components, industrial production index, nonagricultural employment and imports of machineries and electrical equipments each lost one point and changed their individual light signals. The light signals for the rest of six components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for March 27 2013 ~~