TAIPEI: Taiwan’s economy turned sluggish in April, with the overall monitoring index flashing “yellow-blue” for the first time after nine consecutive months of stable growth, according to business indicators published on Friday by the National Development Council (NDC).
The NDC uses a five-color system to gauge the country’s economic performance, with blue indicating economic recession, yellow-blue representing economic sluggishness, green denoting stable growth, yellow-red referring to a warming economy and red pointing to economic overheating. The economic slowdown in April was primarily due to the strong New Taiwan dollar, which has had a short-term impact on the overall economy, the NDC said.
In terms of the monitoring indicator score, the total score for April was 21, on a scale of 9-45, with a higher score representing a more buoyant economy.
Meanwhile, the economy flashed a different color based on the council’s composite monitoring indicator, which measures growth or decline in nine components of the economy.
Of the nine components, the score for two — customs-cleared exports and TIER manufacturing sector composite — lost one point each, changing their individual light from “green” to yellow-blue.” The signal for machinery imports and electrical equipment lost one point, changing from “yellow-red” to “green,” while the signal for the remaining six components was unchanged, all indicating green.
Furthermore, the trend-adjusted leading index was 100.52 in April, down 0.50 percent from the previous month, while the trend-adjusted coincident index fell 1 percent to 100.21.
Wu Ming-hui (吳明蕙), head of the NDC’s Department of Economic Development, indicated that the appreciation of the Taiwan dollar caused business revenues to depreciate, which also dragged down the manufacturing sector composite.
