The nation’s consumer confidence index this month ended four months of declines, due mainly to a stable stock market that has remained above 10,000 points since May last year, a survey released yesterday by National Central University showed.
The index rose 0.18 points to 82.56, the survey by the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development showed.
However, the improvement is not healthy enough to say that consumer confidence has recovered, because it would need an increase of at least 2 points to be viewed as a concrete improvement, center director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) said.
The index comprises six sub-indices that gauge the public’s confidence in consumer prices, employment, family finances, the local economic climate, the stock market and the purchase of durable goods over the next six months.
The sub-index for the purchase of durable goods was the only one that fell, dropping 0.15 points from last month to 89.75, the survey found.
The sub-index for the stock market rose 0.4 points to 93.7, despite the trade war between the US and China, it found.
The sub-index for family finances, which is the key indicator gauging local consumer confidence, rose only 0.05 points to 85.9, its second-lowest level this year, the survey found.
The implementation of the pension reforms for retired military personnel, public-school teachers and civil servants on July 1 would have a negative effect on he index as those people’s incomes fall, dampening consumer confidence, Wu said.
A sub-index reading from 0 to 100 indicates pessimism, while a reading from 100 to 200 indicates optimism, the center said.
The survey polled adults from Aug. 19 to Thursday last week and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points, it said.
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