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.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS