The nation’s industrial production index last month edged up 0.36 percent to a record high of 107.81, but at a slower pace than forecast, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The increase represented the fourth consecutive month of growth, but was less than the ministry’s forecast 3 percent growth.
The index for manufacturing, the pillar of total industrial output, also reached a new high of 107.86 last month, a 0.68 percent increase from June last year.
“The slowing growth could partly be attributed to the lower-than-expected output of integrated circuits, which was last month dragged down by weak sales of smartphones and cryptocurrency mining equipment,” Department of Statistics Deputy Director-General Wang Shu-chuan (王淑娟) told a news conference in Taipei.
The production of integrated circuits rose 2.43 percent year-on-year, marking the lowest annual increase since October last year, Wang added.
The industrial production index measures output in five main industries: manufacturing, mining and quarrying, electricity and gas supply, water supply and architectural engineering.
The machinery industry reported the highest growth, with a 9.17 percent annual increase last month, thanks to demand for linear guideways and ball screws, the ministry said.
The electronics sector, which accounts for the largest share of the manufacturing production index, last month increased 1.55 percent annually, supported mainly by demand for flash memory and silicon wafers, ministry data showed.
Bucking the upward trend, the volume of chemicals production decreased 2.2 percent year-on-year, ending 13 consecutive months of growth, due mainly to lower production of alkene and ethylene glycol.
The ministry forecast that the manufacturing sector’s production this month would grow 5 percent from the same period last year.
In a separate release, the ministry said that the wholesale sector’s revenue last month increased 2.3 percent annually to NT$871.4 billion (US$28.44 billion), on the back of increasing machinery shipments.
Revenue in the retail sector last month rose 4.9 percent annually to NT$345.4 billion as sales in the restaurant and beverage sector rose 8.5 percent from the same period last year to NT$39.6 billion.
The ministry partly attributed the strong performance to the FIFA World Cup in Russia, which boosted the restaurant sector.
The ministry said it expects revenue in the wholesale sector to increase 3.6 percent annually this month and sales in the retail sector to grow 4 percent, as demand should increase during the upcoming Ghost Festival (中元節).
The ministry forecast that revenue in the local food and beverage sector would increase 5.3 percent this month.
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