The composite indicator for the construction industry rose last month to the highest level since January 2014, Taiwan Institute for Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) officials told a news conference yesterday.
The construction composite indicator reached 96.75 points, a month-on-month increase of 6.38 points, the institute said.
The manufacturing composite indicator, another of the three economic composite indicators that TIER monitors, also showed month-on-month growth, increasing 3.94 points to 100.52, TIER said.
It was the second consecutive month of growth for the two indicators, it said.
TIER researcher Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said that despite fewer working days last month due to natural disasters, the government’s efforts to expedite public works had resulted in an uptick in the sector’s composite indicator, which in turn boosted the construction industry.
The indicators, which measure each sector’s performance over time, reflect the institute’s overall optimism regarding GDP growth this year.
Last month, the institute raised its forecast for annual GDP growth to 2.08 percent, citing a faster-than-expected recovery of the global economy.
While the composite indicators for the manufacturing and construction sectors showed an uptick, the service industry composite indicator declined 0.49 points to 95.02, ending four months of increases, the institute said.
The decline can be attributed to lower retail sales in the first half of the year, due primarily to a drop in the number of Chinese visitors, said Gordon Sun (孫明德), director of the institute’s Economic Forecasting Center.
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