Taiwan: Growth in industrial production slows in February

In February, industrial production increased a working-day adjusted 3.3% over the same month of last year, which overshot market expectations of a 1.2% rise. The reading was below the 7.6% increase tallied in January and marked an over-year low. February’s slowdown was mainly driven by a deceleration in manufacturing as well as a deterioration in electricity and gas supply. In contrast, mining and quarrying accelerated compared to the previous month.

A month-on-month comparison shows that industrial output rose a seasonally-adjusted 2.0% in February, which contrasted the 2.1% decrease tallied in January. Annual average growth in industrial production fell from 7.2% in January to 6.8% in February.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists expect industrial production to rise 5.1% in 2015, which is up 1.3 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2016, participants expect industrial output to reach 5.2%.