Taiwanese consumers continued to express optimistic sentiments for the next six months, with confidence recovering in the outlook for employment, economy, quality of life and regular income compared with six months ago, the latest MasterCard survey showed yesterday.
But local consumers’ sentiment about the stock market was less upbeat than the previous poll conducted half a year ago, according to the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence survey, reflecting a decline of 7.68 percent on the main bourse so far this year.
In this biannual survey, which examines five indicators — employment, economy, quality of life, regular income and the stock market — to gauge consumer perceptions of economic prospects over the next six months, the confidence index of Taiwanese consumers rose to 65.7 points from 56.5 six months ago and 39.4 a year earlier.
In Asia-Pacific, the average consumer confidence score was 69.1 points, an improvement from 66.3 in the previous poll, the MasterCard survey showed. It also showed that Taiwan is approaching the 71.3 level that preceded the global credit crisis in 2008.
With a score of 50 as the dividing point between optimism and pessimism, Taiwanese consumers expressed optimism on the economy (73.5 points), employment (72.1) and regular income (64.3), although pessimism remained on quality of life (49.2), MasterCard said.
While Taiwanese consumers remained optimistic about the stock market, as based on MasterCard’s definition, the reading of this sub-index fell to 69.6 points this time from 74.7 in the previous poll, the survey showed.
Among the 14 economies in Asia-Pacific, Taiwan was one of eight where confidence in the outlook for the next six months improved, MasterCard said.
In the region, MasterCard said the three economies that showed the most improvement in consumer confidence were Vietnam, with 93.7 points, Singapore, at 86.6 points, and China, at 83.0 points.
“The Asia-Pacific region rebounded in economic growth as early as the second half of last year, and regional recovery has continued to gain traction this year,” Yuwa Hedrick-Wong (王月魂), a Singapore-based economic adviser to MasterCard Worldwide for the Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement. “This stability of consumer confidence and rising consumption in Asia-Pacific therefore bodes well for stronger business investment through the rest of the year, thereby contributing to the momentum of recovery.”
Japan was the only economy where consumers continued to be mostly downbeat on the MasterCard indicators, with the overall reading improving slightly to 27.8 points from 24.4 six months ago, far below the Asia-Pacific average of 69.1. It was followed by Thailand, where the consumer confidence index fell to 50.6 points from 55.3 six months ago.
Overall, the MasterCard survey polled 10,503 people in 24 economies worldwide between March 15 and April 12.
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