Taiwan Business Indicators in February 2013
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
March 27, 2013
In February 2013, Taiwan Business Indicators showed the domestic economy was gradually into stable, but still faced several challenges. Among the indicators compiled by the Cabinet’s Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), the annualized six-month rate of change of leading index increased by 1.1 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.1% 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 137.6, up by 1.1% from January 2013. Its annualized six-month rate of change increased by 1.1 points to 9.8%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, building permits, average monthly overtime in industry and services, stock price index, and real monetary aggregates M1B had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Index of export orders and index of producer's inventory for manufacturing (inverted) had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 134.7, up by 0.3% from January 2013. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.1% to 98.8. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, and electric power consumption had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, real customs-cleared exports, industrial production index, nonagricultural employment, and sales index of trade and food services had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 137.3, up by 0.6% from January 2013. Its trend-adjusted index increased by 0.2% to 100.7. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Unemployment rate (inverted), regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, and interbank overnight call-loan rate had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in February was increased by one point to 20, flashing the “yellow-blue” signal for the sixth consecutive month. Among the nine components, industrial production index and nonagricultural employment each changed its individual light signal from “yellow-blue” to “green”, imports of machineries and electrical equipments changed its individual light signal from “blue” to “yellow-blue”, each gained one point. Customs-cleared exports changed its individual light signal from “yellow-blue” to “blue”, sales index of trade and food services changed its individual light signal from “green” to “yellow-blue”, each lost one point. The light signals for the rest of four components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for April 26 2013 ~~