Taiwan's Economic Indicator Flashes 3rd Straight Green in April 2014

Thanks to good performance in the sectors of finance, private consumption, trade and production, Taiwan's economic monitoring indicator flashed a green light for the third consecutive month in April, with the composite scores advancing four points to 29 points, a new high in three years, according to the National Development Council (NDC).

This implies an upbeat economy on the island and the monitoring indictor is very likely to remain green in May, says C. L. Chen, deputy minister of NDC, who believes that Taiwan's economy is improving and predicts the economic growth of the year will be above 3%.

NDC adopts a five-color gauge for the island's economic performance: green means stable economic growth; red reflects the economy is overheated; yellow-red shows a heating economy; yellow-blue signals an economic slowdown; and blue indicates a recession.

In April, eight of the nine factors constituting the indicator presented monthly rise, and among them the stock price index turned yellow-red from green; while industrial production index and sales index of wholesale, retail & food services both turned green from yellow-blue.

In the same month the leading index, used to forecast the economic outlook for the next three months, edged up 0.18 from a month earlier to 101.31 for the 20th consecutive monthly growth; and the coincident index, used to assess economic climate in a given month, rose 0.25 to 101.07 for the ninth consecutive monthly rise.

Chen indicates that the island's economy is recovering as eight of the nine factors constituting the economic monitor went up in April, except nonagricultural employment that still flashed yellow-blue.

The island's bullish real estate market also helped boost the domestic economy. In April the outstanding housing and construction loans increased to NT$5.7 trillion (US$190 billion) and NT$1.54 trillion (US$51.33 billion), respectively, both being the highest of their kinds. (JL)