UPTREND:New orders, production, employment, inventories and supplier deliveries gained last month. Manufacturers also voiced optimism about second-half prospects

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 05, 2017
By: Kuo Chia-erh / Staff reporter

The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) expanded for a 16th consecutive month to reach 57.6 last month, although growth has decelerated since peaking at 58.7 in December last year, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER,中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The economic barometer gauges the health of the local manufacturing industry, with scores above 50 indicating an expansion and those below representing a contraction.

“The latest PMI figures indicate that industry sentiment continued to improve, but at a slower pace,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a news conference in Taipei.

The nation’s four major manufacturing industries — basic materials, transportation, electrical and mechanical, and electronics and optics — all recorded expansions last month, statistics showed.
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