After reaching record highs in June and July, followed by a low last month, consumer confidence in Taiwan was almost flat this month, a survey released yesterday showed.
The latest consumer confidence index (CCI) compiled by the Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development at National Central University rose 0.10 points to 83.16 this month from 83.06 last month.
All six sub-indices showed minimal changes this month, within a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Center director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) said this month’s readings indicated that “the overall economic fundamentals are relatively quite good.”
Three of the sub-indices were higher this month than last month, with confidence in the job market seeing the biggest increase of 1.58 points, rising to 109.95.
Confidence in family finances rose 0.55 points to 76.85, while confidence in the domestic economy climbed 0.35 points to 77.75.
Meanwhile, confidence in the stock market’s prospects and domestic consumer prices both fell — the former by 0.7 points to 83.4 and the latter 0.45 points to 44.8.
The sub-index of confidence in durable goods purchases was also lower, falling 0.75 points, but remained above the level of optimism at 106.2. Scores of more than 100 generally indicate optimism, while those under 100 signal pessimism.
The telephone survey was conducted from Aug. 19 to Aug. 21.
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
From India to China to the US, automakers cannot make vehicles — not that no one wants any, but because a more than US$450 billion industry for semiconductors got blindsided. How did both sides end up here? Over the past two weeks, automakers across the world have bemoaned the shortage of chips. Germany’s Audi, owned by Volkswagen AG, would delay making some of its high-end vehicles because of what chief executive officer Markus Duesmann called a “massive” shortfall in an interview with the Financial Times. The firm has furloughed more than 10,000 workers and reined in production. That is a further blow
‘BROAD RANGE’: The US Department of Commerce intends to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei, an industry association said US President Donald Trump’s administration notified Huawei Technologies Co (華為) suppliers, including chipmaker Intel Corp, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told reporters. The action — likely the last against Huawei under Trump — is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat. The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Trump’s administration. US president-elect Joe
AWARENESS NEEDED: The central bank urged lenders to know their customers before undertaking business for them and to seek funding in conventional ways The central bank yesterday said that it would take action against four foreign lenders for their involvement in helping companies trade in the deliverable forward market in contravention of foreign-exchange regulations. Some grain merchants newly based in Taiwan have since July 2019 been practicing questionable currency-trading activity, with the help of branches and subsidiaries of six foreign banks, the monetary policymaker told an unscheduled news conference. Affiliated firms as of July last year completed currency-related deals they referred to as trading that totaled US$11 billion, which was not in sync with their real business needs, the central bank said after wrapping up
RSS