More than half of respondents in a survey by Cathay Financial Holding Co said they expect Lunar New Year bonuses equivalent to one to three months of their salary, according to the results released yesterday.
The company said that 55.3 percent of respondents expect to receive bonuses equivalent to one to three months of their salary, up from the 54.1 percent in a similar poll conducted last year.
This year’s survey found that 37.5 percent of respondents expect bonuses equivalent to less than one month of their salary, down from last year’s 39.2 percent.
In this year’s poll, 33.6 percent of respondents said they think the economy has worsened from six months ago, while 26.7 percent said it has improved.
The figure translates into minus-6.8 for this month’s economic optimism index on current conditions, down from last month’s 2.8.
This month’s economic optimism for the next six months also fell to minus-10.6 from zero last month, the survey found.
Cathay Financial said the monthly declines in the two indices were the steepest since the beginning of this year, despite the economy flashing “green” in October, signaling steady growth, while the composite index of monitoring indicators fell by 5 points from the previous month.
The declines in the two indices also reflect caution toward the upcoming slow season in the first quarter of next year for the electronics sector, which is a major contributor to the nation’s exports.
The optimism index on the equity market over the next six months this month fell to minus-17.4 from last month’s minus-7.7, while the index gauging risk appetite fell from minus-2 to minus-3.5 during the same period, the survey found.
The index on willingness to buy big-ticket items fell from 5.5 last month to 4.6 this month, it showed.
The government’s decision to raise the salaries of government employees by 3 percent starting next month might prompt the private sector to follow suit, Cathay Financial said.
According to the survey, 35.4 percent of respondents expect their wages to increase next year, up from 28.7 percent in a similar survey conducted last year, while 57 percent expect their wages to stay unchanged, down from 61.6 percent in the previous poll.
The online survey, conducted between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7, collected 14,747 questionnaires from clients of Cathay Life Insurance and Cathay United Bank.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods