Focus Taiwan
Date: 07/25/2020
By: Wu Chia-jung and Frances Huang

Taipei, July 25 (CNA) Confidence in the domestic economic outlook weakened in July, as COVID-19 cases continued to rise worldwide, although Taiwan has been doing well to fight the virus, according to Cathay Financial Holding Co.

Citing a survey conducted July 1-7, Cathay Financial said earlier this week that 44.2 percent of its clients think the fundamentals of the domestic economy would improve over the next six months, while 31.1 percent said it would get worse.

That translated into an optimism index of 13.1 for the next six months, down from 19.3 in a similar poll in May, the company said.

However, the optimism index for the current economic conditions rose in July to minus 18.2 from minus 42.5 in June, marking the third consecutive month of improvement, the survey showed.    [FULL  STORY]