Economic prospects and political stability top local consumers' concerns, with over 60 percent of survey respondents expressing their fears about the two issues over the next six months, according to a report released by market research firm ACNielsen yesterday.
The report, conducted in 28 markets across the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US between Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, showed that 66 percent of the 14,134 respondents view the economic outlook as an issue more important than health, employment, terrorism, political situation, public security and war.
While a global average of 36 percent worry about local political development, Taiwan is ranked second with 61 percent showing low sentiments in domestic politics, after India's 77 percent.
"Although public concern about the March presidential election and the following disputes have eased up compared with the first half of the year, people's worries are again escalating as the year-end legislative elections are approaching," said Titan Wang (王德林), managing director of ACNielsen Taiwan.
An interesting phenomenon shown in the report, entitled "Global Consumer Confidence Study," is that only 23 percent of Taiwanese people are concerned about war, despite on-going tension between Taipei and Beijing, while 11 percent are afraid of terrorist attacks.
In stark contrast, the US market shows the most concern about the economy and terrorism, while domestic politics is the issue people worry about the least.
Looking ahead, 53 percent of Asia-Pacific consumers are bullish about an economic upturn next year, with those in China (78 percent), India (77 percent) and Indonesia (76 percent) expressing extreme optimism. This compares with the US' 43 percent and Europe's 31 percent.
"Consumer confidence in the Asia-Pacific remains strong with the region's consumers standing out as the most upbeat out of all three regions surveyed. This will be music to the ears of investors, who may have been hesitant in investing in Asia, as they wait for signs that Asia has emerged from its economic doldrums," said Bienvenido Niles, president of ACNielsen Asia-Pacific.
However, only 32 percent of Taiwanese respondents share the same optimism, a drop of 19 percent from the firm's survey in May. In contrast, 34 percent of Taiwanese worry that the economy might deteriorate in the next 12 months, an increase of 6 percent from the May survey.
Local consumers' more conservative attitude toward economic prospects is also reflected in their discretionary spending, as shown in the survey.
Fifty-two percent of Taiwanese consumers choose to save their spare cash in banks and 46 percent would spend money on entertainment activities. Only one-third opt for shares or mutual fund investments.
Around 25 percent would take local or international holidays, making Taiwan the No. 4 country after Singapore, Sweden and Denmark in the survey to see more private spending on tourism.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US