Consumer confidence rises to 18-month high in September

Taipei, Sept. 29 (CNA) Taiwan's consumer confidence index (CCI) hit an 18-month high in September, as the index's six factors all moved higher from a month earlier amid the global AI boom, National Central University (NCU) said Tuesday.

The September CCI rose 3.76 points from a month earlier to 68.77, the highest level since March 2025, when it was 71.86, according to the latest CCI survey conducted from Sept. 18 to 21 by NCU's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development.

The CCI measures sentiment over the next six months across six factors: consumer prices, the domestic economic climate, the stock market, durable goods purchases, employment prospects and family finances.

The sub-index for the stock market hit 35.42, the highest level in almost a year and up 7.7 points from a month earlier. That was the biggest jump among any of the six factors, due largely to the repeated record highs seen in the local bourse.

Yau Ruey (姚睿), a professor in NCU's Department of Economics, told reporters that investors had previously worried that momentum in Taiwan's stock market would moderate in the second half of 2026.

It turned out, however, that share prices continued to steam ahead, with Taiwan's exports and export orders consistently hitting highs on strong global demand for AI applications, which sent the shares of tech companies higher.

The sub-index for the domestic economic climate rose 5.82 points from a month earlier to 87.02 in September, and the family finances factor recorded a rise of 4.52 points from August to 82.64.

The sub-indexes for employment, durable goods purchases and consumer prices also moved higher by 3.38, 0.64 and 0.48 points, respectively, from a month earlier to 76.7, 93.78 and 37.05 in September.

Despite the gains in confidence in the six sub-indexes, NCU said they still had not reached the threshold for "optimism." CCI sub-index scores of 100-200 show optimism, while 0-100 scores indicate pessimism, according to the university.

Also in September, the home-buying index compiled by NCU and Taiwan Realty soared 8.81 points month-on-month to hit 98.84, the highest since March 2025, when the index stood at 99.56.

The surge in September was the second-highest in any individual month since the home-buying index began in April 2020.

Chou He-ming (周鶴鳴), first vice president of Taiwan Realty Estate, said the strong improvement in the September home-buying index came after the central bank further relaxed restrictions on the use of loans in the property market.

It eased selective credit controls for individual home buyers' second home purchases and removed the deadline for developers to start construction on land financed through loans in its quarterly policymaking meeting held on Sept. 17, Chou said.

The central bank also bolstered confidence in the residential housing market by leaving interest rates unchanged for the 10th consecutive quarter, Chou said.

The university's September CCI survey collected 3,182 valid responses from Taiwanese consumers aged 20 and older. It had a 95 percent confidence level with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.