TAIPEI (TVBS News) — A survey revealed a rise in Taiwan's economic confidence as the outlook index turns positive and stock market optimism rebounds, which was released on Wednesday (Dec. 20) by Cathay Financial Holdings.
The December survey indicated that 70% of the population expects the economic growth rate to exceed 2% in 2024, while 55% anticipate the inflation rate to remain above 2%.
These expectations slightly contradict projections from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS), which forecasts a 3.35% economic growth rate and an inflation rate of 1.64% for 2024.
The DGBAS data suggested that people may be more conservative about economic expansion and anticipate higher inflation.
Furthermore, compared to 2022, expectations for salary adjustments have improved, with 45.9% of those surveyed predicting wage increases — up by 13.2 percentage points.
Of these, 9.2% believe raises will exceed 3%, and 47.6% expect monthly regular wages to stay the same, a decrease of 10.9 points from the previous survey.
Taiwan's current situation confidence index has climbed from -23.2 in November to -3.0 in December. Simultaneously, the future outlook confidence index improved from -9.1 to 3.6, signaling growing optimism about Taiwan's upcoming economic climate.