TAIPEI: Taiwan’s economy flashed a “green light” last December, signaling stable growth for the sixth consecutive month, as its exports continued to grow amid recovering global demand, the National Development Council (NDC) said.
According to details, the gains on the domestic equity market and an improvement in the local job market also helped boost the economy, the NDC said. Its composite monitoring indicator for December increased two points from a month earlier to 28, flashing a green light. The December index was the highest since August 2014, when it stood at 29 points.
The NDC uses a five-color system to gauge the country’s economic situation, 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 flashes when the indicator is between 23 and 31 points.
Of the nine components of the index, five increased in December, while the other four fell, the NDC said.
Those that increased were the stock market, non-agricultural employment, customs-cleared exports, imports of machinery and electrical equipment, and the manufacturing composite indicator compiled by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, the NDC said.
The four that dropped were the M1B money supply, the industrial production index, the index of manufacturers’ shipments, and sales of trade and food services, the NDC said.
It said the leading index for December stood at 100.44, up 0.04 percent from a month earlier, marking the 10th consecutive month of increase.
Meanwhile, the coincident index rose 1.18 percent from a month earlier to 105.53, also rising for the 10th straight month, the NDC said.
Head of the NDC’s department of Economic Development Wu Ming-hui said that as the economy continues to improve, the composite index might flash a “yellow-red” light in 2017, ranging between 32 points and 37 points.
However, he said, the domestic economy may be affected this year by global uncertainties such as new economic policies in the United States, the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and general elections in several European countries.
