The nation's consumer confidence plunged to the lowest point in nearly three years this month, with confidence in stock investments showing the biggest drop among the six components comprising the index, according to a report released by National Central University yesterday.
The confidence index lost 1.96 points to 71.42 from last month, a new low since December 2002, when the index stood at 71.31.
The index gauged the public's expectations for stock performance, purchases of durable goods, household finances, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the domestic economic outlook for the next six months.
"There hasn't been any good news recently to stimulate consumers' confidence," said Shia Ben-chang (謝邦昌), professor of statistics and information science at Fu Jen Catholic University, who was involved in conducting the survey.
The survey, in which 2,084 people were interviewed between Sept. 19 and 23, found that 64.1 percent of the respondents were bearish about stock investments in the next half of the year, up from last month's 59.6 percent.
Among the six components, only the confidence score for consumer price fluctuations rose -- albeit slightly by 0.35 percentage points to 48.35 -- thanks to the government's efforts to curb looming inflation by raising interest rates and lowering oil taxes starting next month.
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