Consumer confidence dropped slightly this month from last month, dragged by the gloomy sentiment toward stock investment and economic outlook as Greece’s debt crisis jolted global bourses, a survey by National Central University showed yesterday.
The consumer confidence index slid 1.06 points to 90.58 this month, as losses in the stock and economic subindices more than muted increases in the other four gauges, the monthly survey found.
The stock investment subindex shed 9.9 points to 90.2 this month, falling below the neutral threshold, as the TAIEX slumped 5.03 percent and Greece’s debt drama intensified, the survey showed.
“Small and open, the local bourse is susceptible to external shocks,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, which helped conduct the survey.
Confidence scores above 100 indicate optimism, while values below that suggest pessimism.
The economic output subindex weakened 2.05 points to 84.6 this month, as major economic bellwethers, including exports, export orders and industrial output, remained soft in a low sales season for technology products, the survey showed.
The government’s business monitoring system flashed “yellow-blue” last month, suggesting that domestic economic conditions continued to stall, even though they fared slightly better from April’s “blue” signal, Wu said.
The inflation subindex reported the fastest gain of 2.6 points to 58.45, reflecting entrenched concerns over consumer prices, the survey said.
While the government’s consumer price index stayed in negative territory for the past five months, food costs continued to rise, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics showed.
The job market subindex edged up 0.85 points to 115.75 this month, while the gauge on household incomes picked up 1.25 points to 88.9, the survey said.
The findings are favorable for private consumption, which might lend support to GDP growth this year, as exports falter, Wu said.
The subindex on durable goods purchases increased 0.9 point to 105.6 this month, affirming the strength of consumer activity, the survey said.
However, prospective buyers held off real-estate purchases on expectations that the newly passed income taxes on property gains could trigger a price fall.
The survey interviewed 2,453 Taiwanese adults by telephone between June 19 and Tuesday last week.
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