LOW BAR:The CIER said the rebound was largely due to a low base of comparison in February, although local tech firms were boosted by the release of Apple’s iPhone SE

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2016
By: Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) registered 54.9 last month, bounding back to positive territory, as companies emerged from holiday disruptions and the launch of new handsets by Apple Inc also lent support, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The rebound has more to do with a low base of comparison in February than signs of a recovery because the reading after seasonal adjustments continued to contract, although at a milder pace, the Taipei-based institute said.

“A recovery remains elusive, even though the operating conditions showed improvement last month and beyond,” CIER president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) told a news conference.

The PMI is an important economic bellwether aimed at gauging the health of the manufacturing industry’s operating conditions, with scores above 50 indicating improvement and values below the threshold reflecting deterioration.     [FULL  STORY]