National Development Council

Taiwan Business Indicators in March 2018

Taiwan Business Indicators in March 2018

In March 2018, the overall monitoring indicator flashed “green” signal. The total score decreased by one point to 23. 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 March 2018 decreased by one point to 23, flashing the “green” signal for the second month. Among the nine components, the customs cleared exports gained one point to change its individual light from “yellow-blue” to “green”. The imports of machineries and electrical equipments loss one point to change its individual light from “yellow-red” to “green”, and the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing loss one point to change its individual light from “green” to “yellow-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 100.90, down by 0.17% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, building permits and real imports of semiconductor equipment had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while the index of export orders, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, 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 0.12% from last month. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, electric power consumption, the industrial production index, nonagricultural employment, and sales of trade and food services had positive cyclical movements, while real machineries and electrical equipments imports, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, and real customs-cleared exports had negative cyclical movements.
4. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the trend-adjusted lagging index stood at 100.78, up by 0.15% from last month. Among six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the interbank overnight call-loan rate, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and the unemployment rate (inverted) had positive cyclical movements, while employees on payrolls in industry and services had negative cyclical movement.

~~ Next publication date: May 28 2018 ~~