Taiwan economy sinks into sluggishness

TAIPEI, April 27 -- Taiwan's economy began to show signs of sluggishness in March as indicated by the latest index gauging the business climate, which was released by the island's economic planning department Monday.

The composite index of monitoring indicators shifted from the green light in February to the yellow-blue light in March, dropping four points from February to 20 points, suggesting that the economy tended to shift from stable growth to a recession, the department said in a press release.

Under Taiwan's five-color system to assess the economy, a blue light (9-16 points) indicates contraction, a yellow-blue light (17-22) means sluggishness, a green light (23-31) signals stable growth, a yellow-red light (32-37) suggests a warming economy and a red light (38-45) points to an overheated economy.

The trend-adjusted leading indicator, which is composed of seven sub-indexes to predict changes in the economy, dropped by 1.73 percent to 97.61 in March.

Amid the deteriorating novel coronavirus pandemic, the world's leading economies, including the United States, Europe and Japan, are very much likely to suffer economic slowdown, and Taiwan will not be exempted, the statement said.

It also warned that the economy might not recover to the level before the pandemic in a short time.

The latest survey on consumer confidence in Taiwan, conducted by the Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, also showed a further weakening index in April.

The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) remained in the pessimistic range in April, dropping by 5.12 points to 73.39 points from March, according to the survey report published Monday.

A reading between 100 and 200 points suggests optimism, while one below 100 indicates pessimism.

The CCI consists of six sub-indexes measuring investment in the stock market, consumer prices, purchases of durable goods, employment opportunities, domestic economic outlook and household economic conditions in the coming six months.

All six sub-indexes fell in April and remained below 100 points, the report said.

The survey, conducted from April 19 to 23, interviewed 2,847 sampled local consumers aged 20 and above via telephone.