Taiwan Business Indicators in December 2012
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
January 28, 2013
In December 2012, Taiwan Business Indicators showed the domestic economy was gradually into stable. 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 0.9 points, the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased by 0.5% from the previous month, and the overall monitoring indicator flashed the "green" signal.
1. Leading Indicators: With revised data, the composite leading index stood at 134.7, up by 0.9% from November 2012. Its annualized six-month rate of change increased by 0.9 points to 6.8%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, index of export orders, index of producer's inventory for manufacturing (inverted), SEMI book-to-bill ratio, and stock price index had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Average monthly overtime in industry and services, building permits, and real monetary aggregates M1B had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 132.2, down by 0.1% from November 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.5% to 97.3. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the sales index of trade and food services, and real customs-cleared exports had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Electric power consumption, index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, nonagricultural employment, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, and industrial production index had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 136.6, up by 0.4% from November 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.01% to 100.5. Among the six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, 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 November was adjusted upward by one point to 21, following the revision of the sales index of trade and food services. The total score in December increased 2 points to 23, changing the overall light signal from "yellow-blue" to "green". Among the nine components, Customs-cleared exports and machineries and electrical equipments imports each gained one point and changed their individual light signal from "blue" to "yellow-blue". The light signals for the rest of seven components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for February 27 2013 ~~