TAIPEI, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan continued to see flashing signs of a sluggish economy in March, as uncertainty still weighed on its economic outlook, according to the latest index gauging the business climate by the island's economic planning authorities.

The composite index of monitoring indicators for March flashed the yellow-blue light despite a slight increase of 3 points from February to 20 points, suggesting the economy remained between recession and growth.

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 points to an overheated economy.

Based on the performance of nine economic indicators, the business climate reading has been "blue" or "yellow-blue" light since September last year.

Five of the nine variables measured in March remained unchanged from February, with improvements in imports of machinery and electrical equipment, exports and the manufacturing sector. The light for the industrial production index was downgraded from "yellow-blue" to "blue."

The leading indicator, which is composed of seven sub-indexes to predict changes in the economy, rose 0.71 percent from February to 101.58, with six sub-indexes improving after trend adjustment.

The coincident indicator, which reveals the current economic situation, fell for the 15th consecutive month in March to 97.87 from 97.02 in February.