National Development Council

Taiwan Business Indicators in January 2018

Taiwan Business Indicators in January 2018

In January 2018, the overall monitoring indicator flashed “yellow-blue” signal. The total score decreased by two points to 20. The trend-adjusted leading index increased and the coincident index decreased from the previous month. The government will be closely monitoring the economic situation.

1. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in January 2018 decreased by two points to 20, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the second 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 customs cleared exports lost two points to change its individual light from “green” to “blue”, while the industrial production index lost one point to change its individual light from “yellow-blue” to “blue”. The light signal from the rest of six components remained unchanged.
2. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 101.62, up by 0.08% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real imports of semiconductor equipment, building permits, the index of export orders, and TAIEX average closing price had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while real monetary aggregates M1B, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, and the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator had negative cyclical movements.
3. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 101.85, down by 0.14% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, the industrial production index, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, sales of trade and food services, and nonagricultural employment had positive cyclical movements, while electric power consumption, and real customs-cleared exports had negative cyclical movements.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 100.39, up by 0.24% from last month. Among six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, employees on payrolls in industry and services, the unemployment rate (inverted), and the interbank overnight call-loan rate had positive cyclical movements, while loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing had negative cyclical movements.

~~ Next publication date: March 27 2018 ~~