TAIPEI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Manufacturing activity continued to contract in Taiwan in February, as indicated by a Taipei-based think tank's latest Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), a key measurement of business vitality.

The PMI for February stood at 48.3, according to the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER).

A PMI reading above 50 suggests expansion, and below 50 indicates contraction.

The index for the non-manufacturing service sector in February also fell by 1.2 percentage points from the previous month to 47.8, marking a decline for two consecutive months, according to the CIER data.

Among the sub-indexes for manufacturing PMI, only employment and inventories were above 50, while production, new orders, and suppliers' deliveries remained in the contraction range.

As for the service sector, only the sub-index for employment moved higher, up 4.7 percentage points from a month earlier to 55.0. The sub-indexes on business activity/production, new orders, and suppliers' deliveries all moved lower and remained in contraction, according to CIER.