Taiwan Business Indicators in September 2012
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
October 26, 2012
In September 2012, Taiwan Business Indicators showed the domestic economy was moving away from slowdown, 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 decreased by 0.4 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 130.9, up by 0.1% from August 2012. Its annualized six-month rate of change decreased by 0.4 points to 3.2%. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, index of producer's inventory for manufacturing (inverted), index of export orders, and stock price index had positive cyclical movements from previous month. SEMI book-to-bill ratio, building permits, real monetary aggregates M1B, and average monthly overtime in industry and services had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
2. Coincident Indicators: With revised data, the coincident index stood at 131.9, up by 0.4% from August 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.1% to 97.5. Among the seven indicators making up the trend-adjusted index, real customs-cleared exports, index of producer’s shipment for manufacturing, the sales index of wholesale, retail and food services, and industrial production index had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Electric power consumption, real machineries and electrical equipments imports, and nonagricultural employment had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. Lagging Indicators: With revised data, the lagging index stood at 135.2, down by 0.3% from August 2012. Its trend-adjusted index decreased by 0.8% to 99.9. All six indicators making up the trend-adjusted index had negative cyclical movements from previous month, which were the unemployment rate (inverted), inventories to sales ratio for manufacturing, the manufacturing unit output labor cost index, regular employees on payrolls in industry and services, interbank overnight call-loan rate, loans and investments of monetary financial institutions.
4. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in September increased 7 points to 22, changing the overall light signal from "blue" to "yellow-blue". Among the nine components, stock price index, industrial production index and nonagricultural employment each gained one point and changed their individual light signal from "yellow-blue" to "green". Customs-cleared exports gained three points and changed its individual light signal from "blue" to "yellow-red". Manufacturing sales and the sales index of wholesale, retail and food services each gained one point and changed their individual light signal from "blue" to "yellow-blue". Machineries and electrical equipments imports lost one point and changed its individual light signal from "yellow-blue" to "blue". The light signals for the rest of two components remained unchanged.
~~ The next release is scheduled for November 27 2012 ~~