A poll among salaried workers by the online job board yes123 indicated that year-end consumer spending was not favorable, saying that more than 60 percent of respondents felt that this year’s economic environment was worse than last year’s.
According to the poll, 34.1 percent of respondents said they had made purchases during the anniversary sales offered by department stores this year, but among those who had spent money, 63.3 percent said they spent less than last year, and 70 percent had spent an average of NT$4,257.
Of the salaried workers polled, 19.7 percent said they intended to go to the information technology expo and make purchases there, but 64.3 of those who planned to go to the expo said they had budgeted a smaller amount than last year, with 41.6 percent saying that they intended to cap their purchases at NT$1,000 or less.
According to the poll, the primary purchases of those attending the expo were smartphones at contract prices, tablet computers and notebook computers.
As for the Christmas sales season, which is expected to stimulate domestic spending at the end of the year, 39 percent of the polled said they intended to go out for a Christmas meal. Among those, 47.9 percent said they had lower budgets, and 60.8 percent said they planned to keep the cost of the meal to a maximum of NT$1,000.
The poll also found that people are budgeting less for holiday gifts. Forty-one percent of workers said that they had plans for gifts. Of that figure, 48.8 percent said they budgeted less than last year, and 95 percent said they wanted to keep their expenditure to below NT$5,000.
The average planned budget for Christmas gifts was NT$1,736.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
INTEL: China’s ships are mapping strategic ocean floors, including near Guam, which could aid undersea cable targeting and have military applications, a report said China’s oceanographic survey and research ships are collecting data in the Indo-Pacific region — possibly to aid submarine navigation, detect or map undersea cables, and lay naval mines — activities that could have military applications in a conflict with Taiwan or the US, a New York Times report said. The article, titled “China Surveys Seabeds Where Naval Rivals May One Day Clash,” was written by Chris Buckley and published on Thursday. Starboard Maritime Intelligence data revealed that Chinese research ships last year repeatedly scanned the ocean floor east of Taiwan’s maritime border, and about 400km east and west of Guam; “waters that
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