Taiwan's Retail Turnover Hits Record High in January 2014

Due to the Chinese New Year holiday, Taiwan's retail sector witnessed record monthly turnover of NT$355.1 billion (US$11.84 billion) in January, up 6.4% year on year, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

In the same month total  business turnover reached NT$1.24 trillion (US$41.33 billion), the fifth consecutive monthly positive growth of 2.1%. During the month turnover of  of the wholesale sector remained the same as last year and that of F&B sector sharply went up by 11.8% to NT$36.3 billion (US$1.21 billion), to which restaurants contributed NT$31.4 billion (US$1.05 billion), the highest of its kind and a sizable 12.2% YoY growth.

However, the manufacturing production index in January dropped an annual 1.93% due to less working days because of Chinese New Year holiday and weak market demand for LCD panels, computers and electronic products for the month. Nevertheless, the IC industry witnessed an annual growth of 6% in the same month due to rising demand for emerging products like mobile devices, which has stimulated production of wafers and package IC.

MOEA believes the growth of manufacturing production index may turn positive in February since the global economy is recovering and Taiwan's semiconductor and high-end optical parts remain competitive in the global market.

A survey of Taiwan's economic climate conducted in February by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) shows that 47.9% of the polled manufacturers feel optimistic about the business climate on the island in the next six months, sharply up 10 percentage points from the corresponding percentage of a month earlier.

Seeing obvious economic recovery in advanced nations, the Industrial Economics & Knowledge Center (IEK) under the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the government-backed research organization in Taiwan, predicts Taiwan's manufacturing production index may rise 3.17% this year, higher than 3.09% forecast in December 2013, particularly the machinery industry that may see a rosy picture for the year.

T. S. Hung, president of TIER, indicates that Taiwan's business climate monitoring index of the manufacturing sector stood at 101.41 in January for the second consecutive monthly rise; likewise, the corresponding figure of the service industry also showed the second consecutive monthly growth to reach 95.97; but export orders shrank in the same month, the first drop in seven months.

IEK foresees that Taiwan's four key industries may see an uptrend in production value, predicting that metal electric machinery, IT & electronic products, chemical industry, and daily staples sector will chalk up by 1.65%, 4.98%, 3.14%, and 1.93%, respectively. (JL)