The consumer confidence index rose to 86.16 this month, up 2.82 points from last month, as the economy continues to expand and the local bourse holds firm above 10,000 points, despite intermittent pullbacks, a National Central University (NCU) survey showed yesterday.
All six sub-indices gained this month, with the sentiment gauge on stock investment registering the fastest advance of 6.7 points to 105.2, the second-highest in history, the monthly survey found.
FEELING BETTER
“People by and large feel better off financially now that the TAIEX has rallied above the 10,000-point level for several months,” the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) told reporters.
Confidence values larger than 100 indicate optimism and values lower than the threshold suggest pessimism.
Daily stock turnover surged 57.32 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, lending support to retail, dining and travel revenues, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last week.
The agency expects domestic demand to accelerate next year while the growth in exports might moderate somewhat due to a relatively high comparison base this year.
The government has announced plans to raise for civil servants’ wages by 3 percent and the private sector might follow suit, allowing people more financial leeway, DGBAS said.
The confidence measure on inflation levels picked up 2.75 points to 52.3, while the household income reading rose 2.1 points to 84.7, the survey said, as robust demand might raise the prices of goods and services.
The confidence level for the economic condition climbed 2.05 points to 79.5 and the sub-index for durable goods purchases rose 1.8 points to 89.95, the survey said.
The sentiment gauge on the job market rose 1.5 points to 105.3, suggesting most people do not have difficulty finding jobs, it said.
The survey polled 2,544 adults by telephone between Sunday and Wednesday last week. It has has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
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