Taiwan Business Indicators in December 2017
Press Release
National Development Council (NDC)
January 26, 2018
In December 2017, the overall monitoring indicator flashed “yellow-blue” signal. The total score decreased by one point to 22. The trend-adjusted leading index and the coincident index increased from the previous month. The government will be closely monitoring the economic situation.
- The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in November was adjusted upward by one point to 23, following the revision of the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing. The total score in December 2017 decreased by one point to 22, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the first month. Among the nine components, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments loss one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-blue”. The light signal from the rest of eight components remained unchanged.
- Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 102.14, up by 0.34% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the index of export orders, real imports of semiconductor equipment, building permits, and net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while real monetary aggregates M1B, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, and TAIEX average closing price had negative cyclical movements.
- Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 102.97, up by 0.35% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, electric power consumption, real customs-cleared exports, sales of trade and food services, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, the industrial production index, and nonagricultural employment had positive cyclical movements, while the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing had negative cyclical movements.
- Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 100.01, down by 0.04% from last month. Among six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, employees on payrolls in industry and services, the unemployment rate (inverted), and the interbank overnight call-loan rate had positive cyclical movements, while the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and the manufacturing unit output labor cost index had negative cyclical movements.
~~ Next publication date: March 7 2018 ~~