Taiwan consumers have continued to show lower expectations about future income and investment as well as general economic situation for the eighth-consecutive month in December, said a survey publicized Monday.
The consumer confidence index, based on a monthly survey by the "National Central University," dropped by 2.59 to 81.61 points in December from last month, said a report from the university's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development.
The index has continued to fall since May due to febrile growth in the local economy. The island's gross domestic product (GDP) dropped for the third quarter of this year by 1.01 percent, year on year, the lowest since the second quarter of 2009, when Taiwan was affected by the global financial crisis.
The index consists of six indicators to reflect what people think about the economy over the next six months, reflecting expectations of consumer prices, stock market investment, employment, family income, local economic climate and purchase of durable goods.
Four indicators dropped while two increased this month, compared with a reduction of five indicators last month, the report said.
Among the indicators that dropped this month, the steepest decline was seen with purchase of durable goods in the next six months and the least reduction posted for stock market investment.
Two indicators that increased were employment and consumer price over the next six months.
According to the research design, an indicator's score ranging between 0 and 100 indicates pessimism while scores between 100 and 200 indicate optimism.
Thus, residents remained confident about their employment prospects with the indicator at 113.15, while the remainder were all below 100.
The survey was conducted between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23 with 2,437 valid questionnaires.
The official assessment of the economic situation, also released on Monday, showed similar tendencies. The monthly evaluation of the economic situation in November by the island's development council has remained "sluggish" for a sixth consecutive month, based on indicators including monetary aggregates, stock prices, industrial production, non-agricultural employment, custom-cleared exports, imports of machinery and electronic equipment, manufacturing sales and trade.
However, the council said in a press release that a few indicators have slightly improved, such as the monetary aggregates and the import of machinery and electronic equipment, while the other indicators also showed slower reduction.