Taiwan's economy remained sluggish, recovery slow in December: NDC
Taipei, Jan. 26 (CNA) Taiwan's overall economy remained sluggish for the second consecutive month in December 2023, signifying that the slow recovery continued having left contraction behind, the National Development Council (NDC) said Friday.
Data released by the NDC, the top economic planning agency in Taiwan, showed the composite index of monitoring indicators remained at 20 points with a yellow blue light, the same as the previous month.
The NDC uses a five-color system to gauge the country's economic performance, with blue indicating economic contraction, yellow-blue representing sluggishness, green signifying stable growth, yellow-red referring to a warming economy, and red pointing to an overheated or booming economy.
Among the nine factors in the composite index of economic indicators, the sub-index on merchandise exports moved higher by two points to flash a red light in December, compared with a green light a month earlier, the NDC said.
Meanwhile, sales posted by the retail, wholesale and food/beverage industries dropped by two points, downgrading from a green light in November to a blue light in December.
The other seven factors -- money supply (blue light), share price changes (red light), industrial production (blue light), non-farm payrolls (green light), imports of machinery and electric equipment (blue light), revenue generated by the manufacturing sector (blue light), and business sentiment among manufacturers (yellow-blue light) -- remained unchanged from a month earlier, the NDC added.
Wu Ming-hui (吳明蕙), head of the NDC's Department of Economic Development, said although Taiwan's merchandise exports flashed a red light, sectors that posted a strong performance were mainly concentrated in the audio-visual communication equipment industry.
Concerning the performance of the retail, wholesale and food/beverage industries, Wu said this was mainly due to the restocking of inventories being pushed back as the Lunar New Year falls in February this year.
According to Wu, the trend-adjusted leading index increased for three consecutive months by 0.83 percent, while the coincident index increased for nine consecutive months, signifying that Taiwan's economy is slowly recovering.
As global trade picks up momentum, backed up by the expansion of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and high-speed computing, Taiwan's economy has finally bottomed out and is beginning to rise, he said.
However, the NDC official also warned that there are still many uncertainties, including the crisis in the Red Sea, the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the U.S.-China rivalry, that could further impact global trade.
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