The consumer confidence index this month fell 0.93 points to 73.33 amid concerns that consumer price hikes would erode household income, while boosting the appeal of durable goods, a survey released yesterday by National Central University showed.
The consumer sentiment gauge softened for the fourth month in a row to the lowest level since February, although the nation has emerged from a local COVID-19 outbreak.
The reading on household income for the next six months reported the biggest drop of 5.15 points to 81.95, the lowest in 13 months, as people worried that rising consumer prices would weaken their financial standing, said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, which conducted the survey.
Photo: CNA
The level of public confidence in consumer prices for the next six months also fell, retreating 3.35 points to 35.5, the survey showed.
About 95 percent of the respondents believe items would become more expensive and add to their financial burdens, Wu said.
Confidence in the nation’s economic outlook in the next six months fell 2.2 points to 86.7, the lowest in 10 months, even though the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics on Friday raised its forecast for GDP growth this year by 0.21 percentage points from its August projection to 6.09 percent.
That is because a global recovery is benefiting local exporters of tech and non-tech products, but service providers that rely on domestic demand are not yet out of the woods, Wu said.
The sub-index on purchases of durable goods — including real estate and home appliances — picked up 3.7 points to 120.5, the highest since December last year, the survey showed.
Concern over inflation has driven funds to the housing market, Wu said, adding that government-backed stimulus vouchers valued at NT$5,000 bolstered purchases of home appliances.
The confidence gauge on stock investment rose 1.4 points to 48.8, indicating poor investment sentiment, which has yet to reflect concerns over the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, he said.
Values of 100 or higher suggest optimistic views and points below the threshold indicate pessimism. The survey was conducted from Nov. 18 to 21, before reports of the Omicron variant emerged in South Africa, Wu said.
People also turned slightly more confident about finding jobs in the next six months, as the sub-index rose 0.05 point to 66.6, the survey found.
Job losses narrowed, but were still higher from a year earlier, government data showed.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the