Taiwan's economy sluggish in February

TAIPEI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Signs of sluggish Economic growth flashed in Taiwan in February, according to an index gauging its Economic fundamentals by the island's Economic planning authorities on Wednesday.

Flashing the yellow-blue light, the composite index of monitoring indicators for February fell 3 points from a month earlier to 17 points.

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

Seven of the nine variables measured in February remained unchanged from January, while the light for wholesale, retail and food service sales was downgraded from green to blue. The light for machinery and electrical equipment imports was downgraded from yellow-red to green, pulling down the overall index.

The trend-adjusted index of leading indicators, which predicts Taiwan's Economic performance over the next three to six months, fell for nine consecutive months in February to 99.78 points.