The consumer confidence index (CCI) this month rebounded from last month, mainly on the impact of a bearish outlook for the nation’s securities market, providing evidence of the instability of current consumer confidence, a National Central University survey showed yesterday.
The index stood at 75.33 this month, down 0.75 points from a month earlier, marking its second monthly decline this year, the survey by the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development showed.
The index gauges public expectations for the local stock market’s performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer prices and the economic outlook for the next six months.
The survey — which polled 2,428 people over the age of 20 from Monday to Friday last week — showed that only respondents’ concerns over the nation’s stock market performance and consumer prices have increased, while uncertainty over the other four areas eased, the center said in its monthly report.
Shia Ben-chang (謝邦昌), a professor in the statistics and information science department at Fu Jen Catholic University, attributed the index’s mild volatility over the past few months to the public’s lack of confidence in consumption.
“It is the worst situation … as the results showed consumers are likely to remain conservative in the near future,” Shia said by telephone.
The stock market sub-index led the decrease among the six sectors this month, falling by 6.3 points to 59.4, with the consumer prices sub-index down 0.2 points to 46.95 during the period, the report said.
The sub-index of durable goods rose by 1.35 points from a month earlier to 96.65 points last month, marking the largest increase among the six sectors, indicating that property remains an attractive investment target, the report showed.
The economic outlook sub-index increased by 0.35 points month-on-month to 71.35 this month, ending three consecutive months of decline, followed by the sub-indices of job opportunities and household finances, which decreased slightly by 0.15 points and 0.1 points respectively to 105.7 and 71.9 this month from last month, the data showed.
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