The consumer confidence index this month showed the first month-on-month decline since March, sounding an alarm over the direction the nation’s economic sentiment will go in the near future, a National Central University survey showed yesterday.
From the record-high level of 88.17 posted last month, the index this month fell 5.11 points to 83.06, terminating a four-month run of consecutive increases, the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development survey showed.
The index gauges the public’s six-month outlook on the local bourse’s performance, household finances, durable goods, job opportunities, consumer prices and the economy as a whole.
Respondents to the survey, which polled 2,428 people over the age of 20 from Tuesday to Thursday last week, expressed concerns about consumer sentiment in all of the confidence gauge’s six sub-categories.
“The series of natural and human-caused disasters that have occurred in Taiwan recently, coupled with the frequent changes made to the Cabinet, have made consumers concerned,” Shia Ben-chang (謝邦昌), a professor at Fu Jen Catholic University’s statistics and information science department, said by telephone.
Shia said the index’s sharp month-on-month decline may be a warning sign for the economy’s performance in the second half of the year, one that the government should be obliged to watch.
The stock market sub-index showed the largest drop among the six categories, shrinking by 11.8 points to 84.1 this month from a month ago, followed by the economic outlook sub-index, which fell 7.85 points to 77.4 month-on-month, the center said in its monthly report.
The sub-indices of household finances, job opportunities and durable goods stood at 76.3 points, 108.37 points and 106.95 points this month, down 3.65 points, 3.63 points and 2.35 points respectively from a month earlier, the report’s data showed.
The consumer price sub-index showed the smallest decrease of the six, shedding 1.35 points from last month to register a reading of 45.25 this month, statistics showed.
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