Without any long-term economic stimulus policies on the horizon, the confidence of consumers continues to hover at low levels this month, flashing a warning sign to the government, according to the latest monthly survey released by National Central University yesterday.
The consumer confidence index (CCI) edged up by 1.1 percentage points to 69.03 this month as five of the six sub-indices showed slight increases from last month, the report said.
The CCI last month fell to its lowest point in 50 months at 67.93, compounded by continued economic and political uncertainty.
The index gauges the public's expectations on stock performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the economic outlook for the next six months.
Consumer expectations for buying durable goods, including houses, cars and household appliances, over the near term were the only sub-index to drop, by 0.2 percentage points to 114.75.
But as this minor fluctuation was within the survey's margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, the result could be interpreted as unchanged, said Chu Yun-peng (朱雲鵬), head of National Central University's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development.
The survey interviewed 2,642 people on March 22 and 23.
Public concern over inflation eased slightly as 85.8 percent of the respondents said they believed commodity prices would continue to rise over the next six months, down from 87.7 percent who said so last month.
This caused the sub-index for consumer price fluctuations to record the biggest increase this month of 2.85 percentage points to 44.7.
Day Jaw-yang (戴肇洋), deputy director of Research Division III at the Taiwan Research Institute (台綜院), said the worsening consumer loan problem constituted part of the reason behind the wave of weak sentiment.
After the nation's jobless rate fell to its lowest level in five years at 3.8 percent in January, it climbed up to 3.92 percent last month.
However, middle-aged and elderly unemployed people are not so jubilant about
the news, Day said.
He said the retail sector, the only hope of employment for these
job-seekers, has sagged recently because of spiraling defaults on credit and
cash-advance cards and has no plans to increase staffing demand.
“The Cabinet has yet to unveil any concrete economic stimulus packages
since Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) took over as premier in January. The
government should really look into why people's confidence is so weak and
hammer out remedies to address the problems,” Day said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last