According to the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER), Taiwan’s composite index for the manufacturing sector increased by 1.25 from a month earlier to 11.70 to enter the yellow-blue light category, which ranges from 10.5 to 13 points.

The textile industry too was boosted by rising demand for functional textile products and improved from a blue light to a yellow-blue light in April.

TIER uses a five-color light system to describe economic activity, with red indicating overheating, yellow-red showing fast growth, green representing stable growth, yellow-blue signaling sluggish growth and blue reflecting a contraction.

According to TIER, three of the five factors that make up the composite index for the manufacturing sector moved higher in April. The sub-indexes for the general business climate, pricing and demand all rose from a month earlier in April. The growth in the three factors echoed Taiwan's strong export performance in April, when the country's outbound sales rose 10 percent from a year earlier to US$26.73 billion.