Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/02/01
By Tsai Yi-chu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 1 (CNA) The momentum of the local manufacturing and service sectors continued to accelerate in January, with the indexes gauging activity in the two sectors moving higher on the back of improving economic fundamentals at home and abroad.

The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said Thursday that the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector for January rose 1.0 from the previous month to 59.0. It was the 23rd consecutive month in which the PMI remained above 50, which indicates steady growth, the leading Taiwanese economic think tank said.

It was the longest stretch of expansion in the local manufacturing sector since the CIER started releasing the PMI data in July 2012, the think tank said.

Meantime, the non-manufacturing index (NMI), which covers the service sector, also rose 2.6 from a month earlier to 55.9 in January, marking expansion for the 11th consecutive month, the think tank added.    [FULL  STORY]