Taiwan Business Indicators in April 2008
Press Release
Council for Economic Planning and Development
May 27, 2008
In April 2008, Taiwan’s business cyclical indicators displayed signs of a slowdown of the economy. 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 0.4 point and the trend-adjusted coincident index decreased 0.1% from the previous month. The monitoring indicators signaled "green" for the sixth consecutive month. The oil market remains tight and financial turbulence clouds world growth prospects, these effects will dampens the prospects for the Taiwan’s economy.
1. Leading Indicators: The composite leading index stood at 109.4, remained at the same level as in March. Its annualized six-month rate of change decreased by 0.4 point to 2.2%, which displayed a downtrend from November 2007. Among the seven indicators making up the composite index, stock price index, average monthly overtime hours in industry and services and the index of producer's inventory had positive cyclical movements from previous month. Building permits, SEMI book-to-bill ratio, the index of export orders, real monetary aggregates M1B* had negative cyclical movements from previous month.
(Note: components marked with an asterisk indicate real terms)
2. Coincident Indicators: The coincident index stood at 113.2, up by 0.4% from March. Its trend-adjusted series decreased by 0.1% to 100.3. Among the seven indicators making up the composite index, electric power consumption, imports* of machineries and electrical equipments and nonagricultural employment have positive cyclical movements from previous month. Index of industrial production, customs-cleared exports*, manufacturing sales* and Sales index of wholesale, retail and food services have negative cyclical movements from previous month.
3. The Monitoring Indicators: The total score in March was adjusted to 26 from 27, following a downward revision in manufacturing sales. The total score in April increased 1point to 27, flashing the "green" signal for the sixth consecutive month. Among the nine components, five showed changes in their individual light signals, three with gains and two with loss. The improvement was recorded in stock prices, nonagricultural employment, wholesale, retail and food services. The fall was recorded in Customs-cleared exports and imports of machineries and electrical equipments. The light signals for money supply M1B, industrial production, manufacturing sales, direct and indirect finance remained unchanged.
T~~ The next release is scheduled for June 27, 2008 ~~T