Taiwan’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) has remained pessimistic for the month of August. The National Central University's Research Centre for Taiwan Economic Development released new figures on Monday showing that the index was 79.56 points in August. That’s only about one point lower (0.62) than the figure for July.
A value between 0 and 100 indicates pessimism.
Declines were seen in all six indices, including: domestic business conditions, employment opportunities, family economic conditions, investment in stocks, inflation expectations, and willingness to buy durable goods.
One of those -- investment in stocks -- dropped 2.30 points to 70.80 points. Taipei Medical University management professor Shia Ben-chang said Monday that the drop was mostly due to the outflow of hot money.
Shia also said the survey suggests a pessimistic outlook.
“Because the consumer confidence index represents public confidence in consumption in the next three to six months, the trend shows that the public is cautiously pessimistic," said Shia.
"They are quite pessimistic about the future economic conditions," he said, "and this month’s drop should be a warning.”
That was Taipei Medical University’s management professor Shia Ben-chang talking about the latest consumer confidence index figures.