Consumer confidence continued to improve this month, with public sentiment on durable goods purchases over the next six months showing the most improvement, a report released by National Central University said yesterday.
The consumer confidence index rose for the sixth consecutive month to 65.98 points this month, up from 65.39 last month, the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said in a report.
“The public remained upbeat this month about the economy in the first half of the year,” center director Hsu Chih-chiang (徐之強) said by telephone. “People felt more comfortable about buying durable products such as cars and houses.”
Consumers were most upbeat about durable goods, with the projected sub-index gaining 3.5 points to 91.55 points, followed by job opportunities at 43.5 points, up from 42.25, and household finances at 62 points, up from 61.1.
The survey — which polled 2,416 adults nationwide between Jan. 19 and last Friday — showed improvements in all categories except the stock investment outlook.
The projected sub-index for stock investment over the next half year contracted 3.3 points to 95.2, the report said.
Less than 40 percent of respondents said they would invest in stocks, down from 41 percent last month, while 43.3 percent said they would avoid the market in the near future, up from 42.5 percent last month, the survey showed.
Investors expect low interest rates and excessive M1B to change in the near future, Hsu said, adding that they feared banks would raise interest rates soon because the central bank has tried to curb the inflow of “hot money.”
“This is why investors were not as optimistic this month about the stock market over the next six months,” he said.
The consumer confidence index gauges public expectations for the stock market, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer price fluctuations and the economic outlook for the next half year.
The economic outlook sub-index this month stood at 61.8 points, up 0.85 from last month, and the sub-index for consumer prices rose 0.5 percent to 41.8 points, the report said.
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