Property, manufacturing sectors lose hope: surveySURPRISE: The service sector’s confidence gauge rose in part because restaurants, hotels and travel agencies are expecting Taiwan to reopen as COVID-19 cases dropBy Crystal Hsu / Staff reporterAn increase in COVID-19 cases and China’s lockdowns have cast a shadow over business prospects for local manufacturers, and property builders and brokers, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday. The confidence reading for the manufacturing industry declined 4.49 points to 99.1 — its lowest since July 2020 — as sales of machinery equipment, optical devices and plastic products slowed, although foundries held strong, the survey found. From left, Gordon Sun, director of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s Economic Forecasting Center, institute president Chang Chien-yi and researcher Arisa Liu hold a news conference in Taipei on March 25. The number of manufacturers with positive outlooks dropped from 27.9 percent to 25.5 percent, while the number of those with dim outlooks climbed 7.1 points to 14.7 percent, the survey said. As for property developers and brokers, their confidence score tumbled 7.85 points to 96.1 after housing transactions shrank 11.2 percent in the six special municipalities, the survey said.
