National Development Council

Taiwan Business Indicators in December 2015

Press Release

National Development Council (NDC)

January 27, 2016

In December 2015, the Taiwan Business Indicators showed the economic recovery to remain on the slower track. Among the indicators compiled by the National Development Council (NDC), the trend-adjusted leading index decreased by 0.098%, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.03% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the " blue" signal.

1. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in December decreased by one point to 14, flashing the “blue” signal for the seventh month. Among the nine components, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments lost one point to change its individual light form “green” to “yellow-blue”. The light signal for the rest of eight components remained unchanged.
2. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 98.27, down by 0.098% from November 2015. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the index of export orders, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, and real monetary aggregates M1B had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while TAIEX average closing price, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, 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 98.54, up by 0.03% from November 2015. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, electric power consumption, and sales of trade and food services had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while real machineries and electrical equipments imports, nonagricultural employment, the industrial production index, real customs-cleared exports, and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing had negative cyclical movements.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 99.24, down by 0.54% from November 2015. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the unemployment rate (inverted), the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, the interbank overnight call-loan rate, and loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had negative cyclical movements.

~~ The next release is scheduled for March 2 2016 ~~