Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
March 3, 2017
In January 2017, 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 0.37%, the trend-adjusted coincident index increased by 0.93% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "green" signal.
- The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in January 2017 increased by one point to 29, flashing the “green” signal for the seventh month. Among the nine components, the industrial production index gained two points to change its individual light form “green” to “red”, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing and the TAIEX average closing price each gained one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-red”, the monetary aggregate M1B lost one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-blue”, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments lost one point to change its individual light from “red” to “yellow-red”, and the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator lost one point to change its individual light from “yellow-red” to “green”. The light signal for the rest of three components remained unchanged.
- Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 101.76, up by 0.37% from December 2016. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, excluding the SEMI book-to-bill ratio, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, building permits, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, and TAIEX average closing price had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while real monetary aggregates M1B, and the index of export orders had negative cyclical movements.
- Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 105.40, up by 0.93% from December 2016. All seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had positive cyclical movements, which were electric power consumption, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, the industrial production index, real customs-cleared exports, sales of trade and food services, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, and nonagricultural employment.
- Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 96.99, down by 0.48% from December 2016. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the unemployment rate (inverted), the interbank overnight call-loan rate, and regular employees on payrolls in industry and services had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, and loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had negative cyclical movements.
~~ Next publication date: March 27 2017 ~~