National Development Council

Taiwan Business Indicators in November 2016

Press Release

National Development Council (NDC)

December 27, 2016

In November 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 remained stable, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.94% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "green" signal.

1. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in November 2016 increased by two points to 26, flashing the “green” signal for the fifth month. Among the nine components, the customs-cleared exports and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing each gained one point to change its individual light from “yellow-blue” to “green”. The light signal for the rest of seven components remained unchanged.
2. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 100.31, remained stable from October 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the index of export orders, TAIEX average closing price, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, and real monetary aggregates M1B had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while building permits and the SEMI book-to-bill ratio had negative cyclical movements.
3. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 104.39, up by 0.94% from October 2016. All seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had positive cyclical movements, which were sales of trade and food services, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, real customs-cleared exports, the industrial production index, electric power consumption, and nonagricultural employment.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 96.69, down by 0.48% from October 2016. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the unemployment rate (inverted), and the interbank overnight call-loan rate had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, and loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had negative cyclical movements.

~~ Next publication date: January 26 2017 ~~