Consumer confidence in Taiwan showed mild improvement from six months ago in a MasterCard survey released yesterday.
In the Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence, Taiwan was one of four countries where confidence in the outlook for the next six months improved. The survey included 21 economies.
The biannual survey examines five indicators — employment, the economy, quality of life, stock markets and income — to check consumers’ perceptions of economic prospects over the next six months.
In Taiwan, buoyed by improved confidence in the economy and stock market, the consumer confidence index rose to 39.4 points from 32.1 in the previous poll.
But pessimism on employment, quality of life and, in particular, income, kept Taiwan’s overall confidence index below its level a year ago, 71.3 points, and its historical average, 47.2 points, MasterCard Worldwide said in a statement.
The public is judged as pessimistic if the index figure is below 50 points.
Three other economies that also saw an improvement in consumer confidence were Japan, which nevertheless came in at only 21.5 points, Indonesia at 49.2 points and India at 68 points.
India was the only economy where consumers continued to be upbeat on the index’s five indicators, with the overall index rising from 63.9 six months ago.
For the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, the average consumer confidence score fell to 38.7 points from 47.4 six months ago and 56 a year earlier, MasterCard Worldwide said.
It said the drop in confidence was dramatic in some markets, including Australia (24.1), New Zealand (21.5), Hong Kong (24.7), Singapore (31.2), Thailand (23) and Vietnam (60.9).
But the Asia-Pacific score remained higher than the record low of 32.3 during the 1997 to 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, MasterCard Worldwide said.
“The impact of the global crisis on Asia has been massive, with exports declining steeply in most Asian markets,” said Yuwa Hedrick-Wong (王月魂), a Singapore-based economic adviser to MasterCard Worldwide for the Asia-Pacific region.
Over the past two to three quarters, exports have plunged by as much as 40 percent in some countries in the region, he said.
“Currently market conditions continue to be volatile and a high level of uncertainty persists as to what the future may hold,” he said in the statement.
The survey polled 9,211 people in 21 economies between March 23 and April 18.
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
RSS