The council uses a five-tier system to depict the state of the nation’s economy, with “green” indicating steady growth, “red” suggesting overheating and “blue” signaling a recession. The pickup in December reflected stable growth in industrial output and manufacturing sales, as well as healthy wholesale, retail and restaurant operations, the council said. The index of leading indicators, which aims to predict the economic scene six months from now, rose 0.07 percent to 102.15, it said. The epidemic’s effect on Taiwan’s economy is likely to be short-lived, Taiwan Institute of Economic Research president Chang Chien-yi (張建一) said yesterday. The institute last month raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth to 2.67 percent, 0.22 percentage points higher than the estimate it made in November last year.
