The consumer confidence index this month weakened to a 15-month low, as the lingering US-China trade war deepens unease over stock investment and other activity, a National Central University survey showed yesterday.
The index shed 1.82 points to 80.13, consistent with the slowdown in most economic bellwethers, the monthly survey showed.
“The decline came as no surprise, since uncertainty tends to build ahead of major elections,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, which conducts the survey.
The survey polled 2,703 adults from Monday to Friday last week.
The sub-index on stock investment tumbled 7.7 points to 77.6, the lowest since February last year, weighed by disappointing sales of new-generation technology gadgets, notably Apple Inc’s new iPhone series, analysts said.
The local bourse saw a 2.56 percent rebound, but daily turnover shrank considerably, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Investment sentiment might continue to flounder as the trade row might persist for a while, Wu said.
“The [TAIEX] pullbacks are not all negative as they help raise risk awareness... On the contrary, excessive confidence is not healthy for the market,” Wu said.
The job market outlook reading dropped 1.05 points to 99.85 as people expect more difficulty in finding jobs in the next six months, the survey showed.
Scores lower than 100 suggest pessimism, while values above the threshold indicate optimism.
Declining sentiment is unfavorable for consumer spending, which is necessary to drive the economy as exports slow.
Similarly, the sub-index on durable goods consumption dropped 0.85 points, while the reading on household income dropped 0.3 points, it said.
Volatility across global financial markets is likely having a negative effect on local investors’ wealth.
The consumer prices gauge was 45.5, down 1.05 points from last month, indicating popular discontent with commodity price levels, even though they are holding steady, it said.
The gauge on economic outlook bucked the trend and posted a fractional 0.05 increase from last month, it said.
This is because the GDP might expand more than 2.5 percent for the entire year, even though the pace has lost considerable steam in the second half, it added.
The survey had a confidence level of 95 percent with a 2 percent margin of error.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
PRECEDENTED TIMES: In news that surely does not shock, AI and tech exports drove a banner for exports last year as Taiwan’s economic growth experienced a flood tide Taiwan’s exports delivered a blockbuster finish to last year with last month’s shipments rising at the second-highest pace on record as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) hardware and advanced computing remained strong, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Exports surged 43.4 percent from a year earlier to US$62.48 billion last month, extending growth to 26 consecutive months. Imports climbed 14.9 percent to US$43.04 billion, the second-highest monthly level historically, resulting in a trade surplus of US$19.43 billion — more than double that of the year before. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) described the performance as “surprisingly outstanding,” forecasting export growth
RSS