Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
March 28, 2016
In February 2016, 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 0.76%, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.44% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the " blue" signal.
- The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in February 2016 increased by two points to 16, flashing the “blue” signal for the ninth month. Among the nine components, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments gained one point to change its individual light from “yellow-blue” to “green”, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator gained one point to change its individual light from “blue” to “yellow-blue”. The light signal for the rest of seven components remained unchanged.
- Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 96.83, down by 0.76% from January 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, and net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while building permits, the index of export orders, real monetary aggregates M1B, and TAIEX average closing price had negative cyclical movements.
- Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 97.82, down by 0.44% from January 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real customs-cleared exports had positive cyclical movement from the previous month, while sales of trade and food services, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, electric power consumption, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, the industrial production index, and nonagricultural employment had negative cyclical movements.
- Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 99.01, down by 0.55% from January 2016. All six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had negative cyclical movements, which were the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the unemployment rate (inverted), the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, the interbank overnight call-loan rate, and regular employees on payrolls in industry and services.
~~ The next release is scheduled for April 27 2016 ~~