Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
January 26, 2017
In December 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 0.04%, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 1.18% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "green" signal.
- The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in December 2016 increased by two points to 28, flashing the “green” signal for the sixth month. Among the nine components, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments gained one point to change its individual light from “yellow-red” to “red”, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator gained one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-red”. The light signal for the rest of seven components remained unchanged.
- Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 100.44, up by 0.04% from November 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, TAIEX average closing price, and the SEMI book-to-bill ratio had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while building permits, the index of export orders, and real monetary aggregates M1B had negative cyclical movements.
- Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 105.53, up by 1.18% from November 2016. All seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had positive cyclical movements, which were real machineries and electrical equipments imports, electric power consumption, real customs-cleared exports, sales of trade and food services, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, the industrial production index, and nonagricultural employment.
- Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 97.34, down by 0.19% from November 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, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and regular employees on payrolls in industry and services had negative cyclical movements.
~~ Next publication date: March 3 2017 ~~