Taipei, April 28 (CNA) Taiwan’s consumer confidence slid to a nearly one-year low in April as sentiment was affected by U.S. President Donald Trump’s chaotic on-again, off-again tariff policy that has led to global economic and market turbulence.
The latest consumer confidence index (CCI) fell 3.65 points from a month earlier to 68.21, the lowest level since May 2024, National Central University (NCU) said, citing its survey conducted April 18-21.
The survey came after Trump both announced high “reciprocal” tariffs against many countries, including Taiwan, on April 2 U.S. time and then paused them for 90 days a week later while maintaining a baseline universal tariff of 10 percent for most countries.
The CCI gauges confidence over the next six months in consumer prices, the local economic climate, the stock market, the likelihood of purchasing durable goods, employment prospects and family finances.
In April, the sub-indexes for all six factors dropped, with the sub-index for the stock market outlook plummeting by 11.25 from a month earlier to 38.64, its lowest level in a year.
The sub-indexes for consumer prices, family finances, the local economic climate, and employment prospects, meanwhile, all hit their lowest levels since July 2024.
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Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the NCU Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, said that after the announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs, shares in Taiwan saw their steepest daily decline in history on April 7, falling more than 2,000 points.
Even though Trump later paused the tariffs, Wu believed that market volatility has yet to come to an end because Trump has yet to finalize his tariff policy and a decision on semiconductor tariffs has yet to be made.
That ongoing uncertainty has made financial markets more volatile, and it was no surprise that investor confidence has been shaken and investors have turned more cautious, Wu said.
Wu said he was not optimistic about the outcome of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, and he predicted that Taiwan’s semiconductors could face U.S. import duties as high as 25-30 percent.
If that steep-tariff scenario were to happen, it could have a major impact on Taiwan’s industrial sector and domestic economy as well as the job market, and that possible outcome pushed the CCI further down, Wu said.
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Another factor that fell was the sub-index for the likelihood of purchasing durable goods, which dropped below the 100-point benchmark to 99.13, from 101.99 in March, meaning consumers changed their view on purchasing durable goods from optimistic to pessimistic, Wu said.
In NCU surveys, a CCI sub-index score of 0-100 indicates pessimism, while a score of 100-200 shows optimism.
The university’s CCI survey in April collected 3,108 questionnaires from consumers in Taiwan aged 20 and over. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.
