President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trust index fell slightly this month and remained below 50, while that of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) reached a new high, a poll by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine showed yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put Ma’s trust index at 43.9 on a scale of 100, down 0.2 points from last month. The level of trust in Tsai stood at 53.2 points, an increase of 1.3 points over last month’s poll.
It was the sixth month in a row that Tsai’s trust index has been higher than Ma’s. Tsai’s confidence index has remained above 50 since December last year.
It is also the fourth straight month that Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) confidence index has been higher than Ma’s, but the figure has remained below 50 since November last year and is at its lowest since former premier Liu Chiao-shiun (劉兆玄) was rated 35.5 in August 2008.
Increasing confidence in Tsai has also spread to her party, whose level of trust rose 1.2 points to 42. That is only 0.2 points less than the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), where Ma doubles as chairman.
The public mood index (TPMI) this month remained below 50 at 42.5 points, up 0.4 from last month.
The TPMI consists of two indexes: The political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI). The PCI was 46.6 this month, while the ECI was 38.3.
The figures represented increases of 0.1 and 0.7 points respectively over the previous month.
On the political front, respondents’ confidence in the Ma administration was 44.3 points, the same as the previous month.
The index for political optimism grew 0.2 points to 50.0. Political stability remained the same at 40.4 points and the level of trust that the cross-strait detente will be maintained was 59.5, the highest since December last year.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 30 points, an increase of 1.1 points from last month.
The economic optimism index increased by 0.4 points to 46.7 points. Last month’s figure, 46.3 points, was the lowest this year.
Next month’s index for the improvement of the domestic economy fell by 0.1 points to 48.4 and the improvement in personal finances index was up 1 point to 45.
The poll surveyed 1,001 adults around the nation between April 14 and April 16.
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