Consumer confidence this month rebounded for the second consecutive month on the back of the nation’s stock market’s strong performance over the past month, a National Central University survey showed yesterday.
The consumer confidence index rose 1.86 points to 85.59 this month, from 83.83 recorded a month earlier, marking the sixth-highest level since the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development launched the gauge in 2011.
The index measures public expectations about the stock market’s performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer prices and the economic outlook for the next six months.
The results of the survey — which polled 2,426 people over the age of 20 from Wednesday to Sunday last week — showed rising confidence for all six categories this month.
STOCK MARKET
The stock market sub-index led the rise among the six gauges this month, increasing by 4.7 points to 91.7 to reach its highest level since January 2011, the center said in its monthly report.
The results reflected the strong performance of the stock market, with the TAIEX exceeding 9,000 points last week.
In addition, the continuous recovery of the global economy helped improve the nation’s consumer confidence.
“The pace of economic recovering in the US and Europe remains steady, with various economic indicators in China also showed positive signs last month,” center director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) told a media briefing.
That made the sub-index for the economic outlook rebound 1.95 points to 78.65 this month from a month earlier — its highest level since June 2012 — to mark the second-largest increase among the six sectors, the report’s data showed.
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