The consumer confidence index (CCI) fell for a second straight month this month, mainly due to worsening confidence in the local stock market, a National Central University survey showed yesterday.
The index was down 1.31 points to 77.61 this month, marking its lowest level since December last year, the survey showed.
The CCI benchmark gauges public expectations about the stock market, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer prices and the economic outlook for the next six months.
Photo: CNA
This month’s survey — which polled 2,432 people over the age of 20 from May 19 to May 21 — only showed improving sentiment on job opportunities, while uncertainty over the other five sectors expanded, the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development said.
“The results indicated survey respondents remained cautious on the economy over the near future,” center director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) said by telephone.
The stock market sub-index led the declines for the second consecutive month this month by plunging 5.1 points to 54, marking its lowest level since January, the center said in a report.
Analysts said the drop was a reaction to major volatility in the domestic and global stock markets in recent months and uncertainty over the European debt crisis.
In addition, a government proposal to introduce a capital gains tax on stock investments was also a factor, analysts said.
Consumers are expected to remain pessimistic about the stock market’s prospects in the months ahead, particularly if the transaction volume shrinks further, according to analysts.
In the latest CCI report, the durable goods sub-index dropped 2.55 points from a month ago to 88.85, an indication the public held a pessimistic view on the housing market over the near future.
The economic outlook sub-index fell 1.4 points to 81.95, while the sub-indices for household finances and consumer prices slid 1.35 and 0.5 points respectively to 79.35 and 51.55, the report said.
The job opportunities sub-index rose 2.95 points from a month earlier to 109.95, marking its sixth consecutive monthly increase and an indication that it remains on a modest-growth track, data showed.
However, apart from the sub-index for job opportunities, the other five sub-indices reflected pessimism by weighing under 100 points, an indication that overall confidence remained weak, the center said.
Additional reporting by CNA
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by