News
June PMI at 64
By ECCT staff writers
Taiwan’s official seasonally adjusted Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) remained in expansionary territory at 64 in June for the eighth consecutive month, although the rate of expansion has slowed for two consecutive months. According to a report by the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), among the five component indicators, new orders, production and labour employment, and supplier delivery time increased, and inventories expanded.
Both the seasonally adjusted new orders and production indexes have been in expansion for 12 consecutive months, but the two indices continued to fall (by 3 and 2 percentage points, respectively) to 64.7 and 63.8 in June. In addition, the supplier delivery time index has maintained a rate of increase for six consecutive months. However, the index fell by 3.2 percentage points to 71.6 from the fastest rate of increase (74.8) since its inception in July 2012.
The raw material price index has been in expansionary territory for seven consecutive months. Last month it reached 90 but fell to 84 in June.
Broken down by major industry category, the electronics and optical industry sub-index came in at 66.9, power and mechanical equipment industry at 66.9, food and textiles at 57.2, transportation at 56.7, basic raw materials at 55.8 and chemical, biotech and medical at 54.5
The outlook for Taiwan’s Non-Manufacturing Managers Index (NMI), however, is less rosy. After plunging 10.9 percentage points into negative territory in May, the NMI fell a further 3.2 percentage points to 46.0 in June. Among the four constituent indicators, commercial activities, new orders, and labour hiring shrank, while supplier delivery time increased. Of the eight major industries, the NMI of five of them contracted: accommodation and catering industry was the lowest at 16.7, while retail came in at 40.1, education and professional science industry 43.5, finance and insurance (46) and construction and real estate (49.6). The other three remained in positive territory with wholesale at 59.3, transportation and storage industry (57.9) and information and communications (55).
