Taiwan’s consumer confidence weakened to its lowest in eight months last month amid concerns over the uncertainties for the global economy created by US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, National Central University (NCU) said yesterday.
Citing a survey conducted from Jan. 18 to 21, NCU said the consumer confidence index (CCI) fell 2.07 points from a month earlier to 72.54, the lowest level since May last year, when it was 72.20.
The CCI gauges confidence in consumer prices, the local economic climate, the stock market, the likelihood of purchasing durable goods, employment prospects and family finances for the next six months.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
The subindices all regressed last month amid concerns over inflationary pressures and fears over potential tariffs by Trump as he was preparing to take office, NCU Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development director Dachrahn Wu (吳大任) said.
Among the CCI’s six factors, the subindex on consumer prices reported the steepest fall of 3.98 points from a month earlier to 37.25 last month.
Consumers felt the pinch of higher prices at the time of the survey, as vendors were raising prices ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in the last week of last month in anticipation of strong demand for their products, Wu said.
The subindex for the stock market also fell sharply by 2.46 points from a month earlier to 50.53 as investors were aware of Trump’s tariff threats on chips, Wu said.
The subindices on employment, family finances, the local economic climate and purchases of durable goods fell 2.02, 1.88, 1.86 and 0.17 points respectively to 75.61, 82.54, 86.84 and 102.49, the survey found.
In NCU surveys, a CCI subindex score of 0 to 100 indicates pessimism, while a score of 100 to 200 shows optimism.
The only factor that showed optimism last month was the likelihood of purchasing durable goods over the next six months, NCU said.
Trump’s actions over the past few days to impose 25 percent tariffs on many goods made in Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent on goods from China, and his threats to tax semiconductor, pharmaceutical and metal imports confirmed the concerns, NCU said.
The moves sent ripples through financial markets in Asia yesterday.
Export-oriented Taiwan is highly dependent on the US economically, Wu said, adding that he expected market sentiment to stay weak over the next few months.
Another NCU survey conducted last month jointly with Taiwan Realty showed a month-on-month rise of 0.13 points in the index for buying a home, which stood at 99.97.
The university’s CCI survey collected 3,032 questionnaires from consumers in the nation aged 20 or older. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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