CEPD Flashed a Blue Light for Taiwan's Business Performance in August

Taipei,Sept.28,2012(CENS)--The Council for Economic Planning and Development(CEPD)flashed a blue light for Taiwan's business performance in August,representing the 10th straight month for the economy to stay at the recessionary level,the second longest blue-light period since 1984,when the data became available.The CEPD,however,predicted that thanks to the brisk performance of export and stock market recently,the business signal may be converted into a yellow-blue light in September.

Hung Jui-bin,director of the department of economic research,the CEPD,stressed that although the current blue-light period,triggered by the European-debt crisis,is longer than the blue-light period during the global financial tsunami,average score of monitoring indicators for the 10 blue lights reaches 14.7 points,higher than 10.7 points for the latter period.

In addition to the continuation of the blue light,the total score of monitoring indicators in August also dropped one point to 15,due to the loss of one point for the employment in the non-agricultural sector,driving the employment signal from green light to yellow-blue light,which underscores the rigorous situation in the job market.

The composite index of leading indicators,the barometer for economic performance,also dropped for the fourth month in a row,and the index of coincident indicators slipped for the third straight month.

The current 10 blue-light period is longer than the blue-light period during the global financial tsunami,from September 2008 through May 2009.However,the good export performance in the first three weeks of September and the upturn of the stock market,triggered by the third-round quantitative easing policy(QE3)in the U.S.,may push the signal of September upward to the realm of yellow-blue light.