In the absence of policies to stimulate the economy, Taiwan's consumer sentiment continued to hover in the low 70s, although the consumer confidence index last month edged up slightly by 1.17 percentage points from September to 72.59.
The index report was released by National Central University's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development yesterday, which interviewed 2,076 people between Oct. 18 and Oct. 23.
"The public confidence has dipped to rock bottom for months. It does not mean much for the index to rise, as generally consumer sentiment is still weak and pessimistic," said Shia Ben-chang (
The monthly survey asked respondents about their expectations in the following six areas ? stock performance, durable goods, household finances, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the domestic economic outlook -- for the next six months.
Among them, sentiment toward purchases of durable goods, such as houses, cars and electric appliances, showed the biggest increase, 3.2 percentage points to 113.45 last month, the highest point since the survey started in January 2001.
The only area that declined is confidence toward the nation's economy, which dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 60.9 last month and has consecutively slid since February.
Shia said the result is not surprising as people tend to buy pricey goods whose values are maintainable when the economy slows down and savings rates are low.
The Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (中經院) and the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台經院) both trimmed down their GDP growth forecasts for this year to 3.31 percent and 3.53 percent, respectively.
"Consumer sentiment is likely to continuously hover around the low end, unless the government really brings out policy stimuli to drive up public confidence," Shia said, adding the index will stay at the current level unless grave events such as an oil crisis or the suspension of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project occur.
Government officials should also pay attention to consumer worries about rising commodity prices, as a whopping 89.6 percent of respondents said they believe prices will increase over the next six months.
Around 64.3 percent said that they will stay away from the stock market in the next half year, showing weak confidence in the local bourse, according to the report.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the