Taiwan Business Indicators in August 2013
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan
September 27, 2013
In August 2013, the Taiwan Business Indicators showed the economic recovery to remain on the slower track. Among the indicators compiled by the Cabinet’s Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), the trend-adjusted leading index increased by 0.05%, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.23% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "yellow-blue" signal.
1. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the composite leading index stood at 102.92, up by 0.19% from July 2013. Its trend-adjusted index increased by 0.05% to 100.49. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, building permits, real monetary aggregates M1B, and the TIER manufacturing sector composite indicator had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while SEMI book-to-bill ratio, net accession rate of employees on payrolls of industry and services, the index of export orders, and TAIEX average closing price had negative cyclical movements.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 100.79, down by 0.1% from July 2013. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.23% to 98.41. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, electric power consumption, the index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, and the industrial production index had positive cyclical movements from the previous month, while real machineries and electrical equipments imports, nonagricultural employment, sales of trade and food services, and real customs-cleared exports had negative cyclical movements.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 100.62, down by 0.56% from July 2013. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.69% to 98.25. All six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had negative cyclical movements from previous month, which were the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, the inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the unemployment rate (inverted), regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions, and the interbank overnight call-loan rate.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in August dropped by one point to 19, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the second month. Among the nine components, TAIEX average closing price lost one point to change its individual light signal from “yellow-red” to “green”. The light signals for the rest of eight components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for October 28 2013 ~~