A local think tank says that Taiwan’s economy has shown small signs of growth after six months of tighter economic policies.
The think tank is the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research; on Monday it released new figures for Taiwan’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for December. Taiwan’s PMI, which is an indicator of the economic health of the nation’s manufacturing sector, increased from 45.1% in November to 46.6% in December.
The think tank also released new figures on Monday for the nation’s Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI). That index, which is a measure of general economic status, increased from 48.7% in November, to 50% in December, showing signs of flattening.
The director of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Wu Chung-shu explains.
“So far, it looks like [Taiwan’s economy] has shown signs of slight improvement," said Wu.
"But the PMI and NMI have been continually adjusting in recent months," he said. "They rise in one month and fall in the next. As it stands, it cannot be said that the economy has stabilized.”
Wu said that the outlook is not positive for Taiwanese exports. That’s because the indicators for “new orders” and “imported raw materials” have continued to drop. He was cautiously optimistic, though, about Taiwan’s economy in the latter half of 2016.