Affected by a string of consumer price hikes, consumer sentiment this month slumped to its lowest level since December 2001, a report released by National Central University said yesterday.
The consumer confidence index dropped 2.15 points from last month to 65.52 this month, the university's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said.
Public confidence in stock investments was the only category showing improvement, jumping 5.2 points to 78.4, the highest level since May last year.
While 27.5 percent of those polled said they would invest in stocks, 49.1 percent said they would stay away from the market for the near future. The percentage of those who were undecided about investing in stocks reached 23.4 percent this month compared to 7.7 percent last month.
The university's monthly survey gauges public expectations concerning stock performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the economic outlook over the next six months.
Except for the stock performance category, the other five sub-indices all showed declines.
The score for consumer price fluctuations decreased by 6.85 points to hit 32.6.
A whopping 94.7 percent of the respondents said they believed prices will
continue to go up in the next six months, while only 0.9 percent said prices
would maintain stable or decline.
The survey polled 2,327 respondents between May 19 and 21 with a margin of
error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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