INDEX: Chemicals bucked the growth trend last month, falling 2.2% year-on-year, while the restaurant and beverage sector grew 8.5%, partly due to the soccer World Cup

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 24, 2018
By: Kuo Chia-erh  /  Staff reporter

The nation’s industrial production index last month edged up 0.36 percent to a record high of 107.81, but at a slower pace than forecast, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

The increase represented the fourth consecutive month of growth, but was less than the ministry’s forecast 3 percent growth.

The index for manufacturing, the pillar of total industrial output, also reached a new high of 107.86 last month, a 0.68 percent increase from June last year.

“The slowing growth could partly be attributed to the lower-than-expected output of integrated circuits, which was last month dragged down by weak sales of smartphones and cryptocurrency mining equipment,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a news conference in Taipei.    [FULL  STORY]