Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
June 27, 2016
In May 2016, the Taiwan Business Indicators showed some scattered signs of economic improvement. Among the indicators compiled by the National Development Council (NDC), the trend-adjusted leading index increased by 0.03%, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.28% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "yellow-blue" signal.
- The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in May 2016 increased by three points to 20, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the second month. Among the nine components, the industrial production index and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing each gained one point to change its individual light from “blue” to “yellow-blue”, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments gained one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-red”. The light signal for the rest of six components remained unchanged.
- Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 98.31, up by 0.03% from April 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, and TAIEX average closing price had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while the index of export orders, building permits, real monetary aggregates M1B, and net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services had negative cyclical movements.
- Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 99.22, up by 0.28% from April 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the industrial production index, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, electric power consumption, and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while nonagricultural employment, real customs-cleared exports, and sales of trade and food services had negative cyclical movements.
- Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 97.83, down by 0.51% from April 2016. All six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had negative cyclical movements, which were the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the unemployment rate (inverted), loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, and the interbank overnight call-loan rate.
~~ The next release is scheduled for July 27 2016 ~~