The survey showed the January CCI was registered at 67.43 points, down 1.02 points from December 2006. The figure represented the lowest CCI since December 2001.

Six major consumer confidence indicators declined in January. The index measuring whether the next six months would be the best time to purchase durable products and real estate dropped by the biggest margin of 2.75 points to 115.1 points.

The other indicators that slipped were, by the margin of decline: best time for stock investment, domestic consumers’ assessment of price levels, employment opportunities, household income, and domestic economic development.

The survey was conducted between Jan. 18 to 21 on 2,347 randomly-selected adults around the country by telephone. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Analysts suggested that the decline had much to do with the Rebar financial scandal, which had resulted in the biggest economic crisis in Taiwan in recent years.

“The Rebar crisis especially played a role in influencing people’s outlooks on job opportunities and domestic economic development,” one analyst was quoted by the United Daily Evening News as saying.

The scandal began in the beginning of January when it emerged that China Rebar Co. and Chia Hsin Food and Synthetic Fiber Corp., both under Taiwan’s once-powerful Rebar Group, filed for insolvency protection.

The Chinese Bank, also under the group, saw a run at its various branches island-wide after the two firms declared insolvency. The Central Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the bank, spending billions of dollars bailing the bank out.

It was later discovered that Rebar’s founder, Wang You-tseng, who had fled to mainland China and then to the United States, had allegedly embezzled money from his firms and channeled them overseas.

Wang is now listed as a fugitive. Some of his sons, also heads of the various Rebar subsidiaries, have been listed as defendants in the Rebar case.

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