Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/01/21
By: Huang Chiao-wen and Frances Huang

Taipei, Jan. 21 (CNA) Taiwan is likely to report a year-on-year increase in December’s industrial production for the fifth consecutive month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said Saturday.

The optimism was bolstered by moves by clients of local manufacturers to build up their inventories in a bid to meet rising demand before and during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, a traditional shopping season in ethnic Chinese societies, the MOEA said.

It said that industrial production for December could rise about 6 percent from a year earlier after an 8.83 percent year-on-year increase seen in November. The ministry is scheduled to release the December industrial production on Monday.

In November, the industrial production index also rose 1.79 percent from a month earlier to 111.27, with the sub-index for the manufacturing sector — which accounts for more than 90 percent of local industrial production — up 10.36 percent from a year earlier on the back of solid demand for electronic devices in the global market.    [FULL  STORY]