The consumer confidence index (CCI) this month shed 0.78 points to 66.73, with all six components weakening in line with a prevalent conservative sentiment, a survey released by National Central University said.
Though the retreat is small, poor exports pose a threat that would take a toll on the job market and private consumption, said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, which conducted the survey.
Taiwan does not have much to do to reverse exports, which depend largely on when the US Federal Reserve would end its monetary tightening policy and allow global consumers to regain interest in technology products, Wu said.
Photo: CNA
The subindex on buying interest of durable goods, mainly real estate, recorded the biggest drop of 1.2 points to 110.2, the monthly survey showed.
The survey was conducted by interviewing 2,994 adults on the telephone from Sept. 17 to Wednesday last week.
Confidence readings of 100 or more suggest optimism and scores below the threshold indicate pessimism. According to the survey, interest in durable goods stayed strong despite a mild decline.
Taiwan’s private consumption has proved resilient, like the rest of the world in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, but the trend might not last long if exports remain weak, Wu said.
The government’s recent introduction of low interest rates of 1.775 percent for first-home purchases injected a vigor to the local property market, the survey showed.
Wu said that the measure on consumer price outlook edged down 0.9 points to 24.9, with most people expecting continued price hikes ahead.
Wu said that he is not particularly worried about inflationary pressures that have subsided significantly and it would return to the central bank’s 2 percent target next year.
The gauges on household incomes and stock investment dropped 0.75 points and 0.6 points to 74.95 and 44.9 respectively, as artificial intelligence interest cooled and related stocks went through drastic price corrections.
Public confidence on the nation’s economy in six months softened 0.75 points to 80, bucking the government’s projection for an economic recovery from next month onward.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS