TAIPEI: Taiwan’s economy flashed a green light in February, signaling stable growth for the eighth consecutive month, the National Development Council (NDC) said on Monday.
The composite indicator for February dropped 1 point from a month earlier to 28, the council said. 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.
A green light is recorded when the indicator is between 23 and 31 points. Of the nine components that make up the index, two — the M1B money supply and the sale of trade and food services — increased from the previous month in February, while the industrial production index and the index of manufacturers’ shipments fell, the NDC said.
The average closing price on the stock market, the manufacturing composite indicator compiled by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, non-agricultural employment, imports of machinery and electrical equipment, and customs-cleared exports remained unchanged, according to the NDC.
The council said the trend-adjusted leading index for February stood at 101.88, down 0.10 percent from the previous month. Meanwhile, the trend-adjusted coincident index dropped 0.11 percent from a month earlier to 103.35, the NDC said.
Wu Ming-hui, head of the NDC’s department of economic development, predicted that the domestic economy will continue to improve in the future.
However, she added that the global economy faces several factors of uncertainty, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade and economic policies, the impact of Brexit, and the fact that several major countries in the eurozone will hold national elections over the next few months.
