Consumer confidence in Taiwan showed mild improvement from six months ago in a MasterCard survey released yesterday.
In the Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence, Taiwan was one of four countries where confidence in the outlook for the next six months improved. The survey included 21 economies.
The biannual survey examines five indicators — employment, the economy, quality of life, stock markets and income — to check consumers’ perceptions of economic prospects over the next six months.
In Taiwan, buoyed by improved confidence in the economy and stock market, the consumer confidence index rose to 39.4 points from 32.1 in the previous poll.
But pessimism on employment, quality of life and, in particular, income, kept Taiwan’s overall confidence index below its level a year ago, 71.3 points, and its historical average, 47.2 points, MasterCard Worldwide said in a statement.
The public is judged as pessimistic if the index figure is below 50 points.
Three other economies that also saw an improvement in consumer confidence were Japan, which nevertheless came in at only 21.5 points, Indonesia at 49.2 points and India at 68 points.
India was the only economy where consumers continued to be upbeat on the index’s five indicators, with the overall index rising from 63.9 six months ago.
For the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the average consumer confidence score fell to 38.7 points from 47.4 six months ago and 56 a year earlier, MasterCard Worldwide said.
It said the drop in confidence was dramatic in some markets, including Australia (24.1), New Zealand (21.5), Hong Kong (24.7), Singapore (31.2), Thailand (23) and Vietnam (60.9).
But the Asia-Pacific score remained higher than the record low of 32.3 during the 1997 to 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, MasterCard Worldwide said.
“The impact of the global crisis on Asia has been massive, with exports declining steeply in most Asian markets,” said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong (王月魂), a Singapore-based economic adviser to MasterCard Worldwide for the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the past two to three quarters, exports have plunged by as much as 40 percent in some countries in the region, he said.
“Currently market conditions continue to be volatile and a high level of uncertainty persists as to what the future may hold,” he said in the statement.
The survey polled 9,211 people in 21 economies between March 23 and April 18.
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