National Development Council

Taiwan Business Indicators in February 2018

Taiwan Business Indicators in February 2018

In February 2018, the overall monitoring indicator flashed “green” signal. The total score increased by four points to 24. The trend-adjusted leading index decreased and the coincident index increased from the previous month. The government will be closely monitoring the economic situation.

1. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in February 2018 increased by four points to 24, flashing the “green” signal for the first month. Among the nine components, the industrial production index gained two points to change its individual light from “blue” to “green”. The customs cleared exports gained one point to change its individual light from “blue” to “yellow-blue”, the imports of machineries and electrical equipments gained one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-red”, and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing gained one point to change its individual light from “yellow-blue” to “green”. While the TAIEX Average Closing Price lost one point to change its individual light from “yellow-red” to “green”. The light signal from the rest of four components remained unchanged.
2. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted leading index stood at 101.17, down by 0.13% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, 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 the index of export orders, the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator, real monetary aggregates M1B, and TAIEX average closing price had negative cyclical movements.
3. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted coincident index stood at 102.05, up by 0.05% 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, and real machineries and electrical equipments imports had positive cyclical movements, while sales of trade and food services, real customs-cleared exports, nonagricultural employment, and electric power consumption had negative cyclical movements.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 101.10, up by 0.40% 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 inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, and the interbank overnight call-loan rate had positive cyclical movements, while loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and the unemployment rate (inverted) had negative cyclical movements.

~~ Next publication date: April 27 2018 ~~