Focus Taiwan
Date: 02/05/2020
By: Pan Tzu-yu and Frances Huang

Taipei, Feb. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's manufacturing sector remained in expansion mode in January, but the domestic economy may suffer in the first quarter of the year due to the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said Wednesday.

CIER data showed that the seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell 4.9 points in January from a month earlier to 51.3, which was still in the expansion range.

The PMI is based on a monthly poll of executives at some 300 representative manufacturing companies and covers the areas of new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries, and employment. A score of 50 indicates no change, over 50 signals expansion, and under 50 means decline.

In January, the non-manufacturing index (NMI) for Taiwan's service sector rose by 0.9 points from a month earlier to 55.0, marking the 11th consecutive month of expansion, CIER said.
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