Taipei, March 2 (CNA) Consumer confidence in Taiwan improved in February on the back of the country's solid economic growth, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, National Central University (NCU) said on Tuesday, citing the results of a recent survey.

According to the survey, which was conducted Feb. 18-21, the local consumer confidence index (CCI) rose 2.66 points from a month earlier to 74.64.

The CCI is an indication of the level of public confidence over the next six months in the areas of employment, family finances, consumer prices, the local economic climate, the stock market and the likelihood of purchasing durable hard goods such as cars and homes.

Dachrahn Wu, director of NCU's Research Center for Taiwan Economic Development, said that as Taiwan has been doing well in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has seen its economy growing at a stable pace, which has given a boost to consumer confidence.

On Feb. 20, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) announced that Taiwan's gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020 rose 3.11 percent in 2020, beating an earlier reading of 2.98 percent released in January.

The DGBAS said it has raised its forecast for Taiwan's GDP growth for 2021 to 4.64 percent, an upgrade of 0.81 percentage points from a previous estimate of 3.83 percent made in November.

Wu said that since Taiwan benefited from strong export performance on the back of heavy global demand for tech devices and booming stock and property markets last year, consumer confidence was strengthened.

Among the six indexes factored in the CCI, the sub-indexes on five factors moved higher, while only the sub-index on consumer prices moved lower by 1.3 points from a month earlier to 43.15.

The sub-index on the stock market rose 5.8 points from a month earlier to 47.1 in February, the largest increase among the six factors, while the sub-indexes on family finances and the local economic climate moved higher by 3.85 and 3.65, respectively, from a month earlier to 90.65 and 87.95.

The sub-index on employment rose 3.4 from a month earlier to 66.35 in February, while the sub-index on purchases of durable goods also rose 0.6 to 112.65.

A sub-index score of 0-100 indicates pessimism, while a score of 100-200 shows optimism, according to NCU.

As a result, optimism was only seen in the sub-index on the likelihood of purchasing durable goods in February.

Wu said that currently, buying in the local car and home markets remained strong.

The NCU survey collected 2,845 valid questionnaires from local consumers aged 20 or older. It had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.0 percentage points.