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Taiwan's Major Money Supply Indicators Drop in Oct. due to Tepid Bourse

2014/12/04 | By Judy Li

The annual growth of Taiwan's two major money supply indicators—M1B and M2—declined to 7.18% and 4.98%, respectively, in October with the former hitting a new 17-month low and the latter a 16-month low, according to the central bank.

An official at the central bank indicates the fall of both M1B and M2 was mainly due to net outflow of foreign capital and decreasing deposits in stock trading account resulting from the mostly tepid, low-volume stock market.

In October the outstanding value of securities trading accounts reached NT$1.4069 trillion (US$46.9 billion), down NT$43.1 billion (US$1.44 billion) from a month earlier for the second consecutive monthly drop. Meanwhile, the monthly net outflow of foreign funds amounted to US$1.28 billion.

In the same month the outstanding value of NT-dollar deposits held by foreigners in Taiwan fell a monthly NT$5.1 billion (US$170 million) to NT$224.5 billion (US$7.483 billion).

In October, the annual growth of M1B was still higher than that of M2 by more than two percentage points to remain the so-called “golden cross.” In the first 10 months, the annual growth of M1B averaged 8.18% and M2 at 5.69%, indicative of adequate money supply in the market.

A survey by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research shows that the business climate monitoring index of Taiwan's manufacturing industry being 95.75 in October and that of service industry at 95.02. Compared to a month earlier, the former declined 4.13 and the latter dropped 1.37, both being the third consecutive monthly falls.

In the same month the construction industry index shrank 3.71 from the previous month to 92, the second consecutive monthly shrinkage.

Of the polled manufacturers, 21.8% expressed optimism about the business climate in October, down 2.3 percentage points from 24.1% of a month earlier, with 30.3% stating worsening business climate.

As for the business outlook in the next six months, 21.1% of respondents foresee a better climate, down 5.5 percentage points from 15.6% recorded in the previous month. (JL)