The nation's consumer confidence index this month dropped to a five-year-low on growing concern over household finances and Taiwan's economic expansion over the next six-month period, a survey showed yesterday.
This could represent another sign of a downward trend for the nation's economy.
The consumer confidence index fell 6.63 points to 67.48 points, from 74.11 points a year ago, a survey conducted by National Central University on behalf of the government showed.
"Most of the six sub-indices are lower than the 100-point benchmark, indicating pessimistic sentiment [about the next six months]," the university's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said.
The results coincided with the government's cut in its forecast for Taiwan's annual GDP to 4.12 percent next year, from an earlier estimate of 4.13 percent.
Among the six categories tracked by the university, the sub-index of household finances, which remained steady in the past months, experienced the biggest slide, from 61.65 points a year ago to 54 points last month and 53.4 points this month.
Consumers also worried about the macroeconomic expansion as reflected in the decline in the sub-index of the nation's economic outlook for the next six months. The sub-index was down 10.7 points year-on-year, or 0.45 points month-on-month, to 51.8 points.
The sub-index of investment in stock markets was the only sub-index to exhibit a rise from last month. The sub-index rose two points, from 66.1 points last month, but still showed a decline of 2.3 points over the same period last year, the center said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day