President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trust index edged up slightly this month, but still lagged behind that of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who surpassed 50 on a scale of zero to 100, a poll by the Chinese-language Global Views magazine showed yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the Global Views Survey Research Center, put trust in Ma at 46.1, up 0.8 points from last month. At the same time, Tsai’s confidence index rose 1.2 points from last month to 50.8.
Trust in Premier Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) slipped back this month to 45 points — down 2 points from last month.
The Taiwan Public Mood Index (TPMI) this month reached an all-time high at 44 points, up 0.5 from last month.
The TPMI consists of two indexes: the political confidence index (PCI) and the economic confidence index (ECI). The PCI was 47.3 this month — the same as last month, while the ECI was 40.7 — the highest since the center began surveying public mood in June 2006.
The center said the TPMI had continually risen since November amid growing public confidence in the economy.
On the political front, confidence in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was 42.2 points, up 0.1 point from the previous month. The DPP also gained 0.6 points in its trust level, at 41.4 points.
The index for political optimism grew 0.6 points to 51.6. The index for political stability for next month was down 0.5 point to 42.0 and the level of trust in cross-strait detente next month increased 1.7 points to 61.1.
On the economic front, the current economic situation index was 34.4 points, an increase of 2.5 points from last month.
The economic optimism index fell 0.2 point from the previous month, to 47.1 points.
The poll surveyed 1,010 adults across the nation between July 14 and July 16.
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