China continues to be the star performer with the highest consumer
confidence score across the Asia Pacific region, a survey conducted
by MasterCard International has shown Wednesday.
The latest MasterIndex of Consumer Confidence survey, MasterCard
International's regular report on consumer confidence, revealed a
cautious consumer outlook across many Asia/Pacific markets;
however, consumers in China are bucking the trend, with consumer
confidence in this market staying at very optimistic levels.
China registered a high score of 84.4, compared to the last score
of 73.6, the report said.
"It's interesting that China continues to experience such high
consumer confidence levels," Stuart McDonald, senior vice president
of corporate services of MasterCard International in the
Asia-Pacific region.
He
said consumers in China are extremely upbeat about the future. Not
only does China presently register the highest MasterIndex score in
the region, but there is a substantial increase across all five
variables in employment, economy, regular income, and quality of
life; in particular, employment rose from 53.6 to current index of
74, while stock market rose from 57.1 to current 68.3, he
added.
But Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard's economic advisor for the Asia
Pacific region, said the latest results reflect a higher level of
uncertainty with respect to both the external environment and
domestic conditions for a number of other markets.
"Volatility, expressed in terms of the degrees of ups and downs in
consumer sentiments, is accordingly higher," he said.
The countries that have a more positive outlook for the next six
months include China, Malaysia, Thailand, New Zealand, India and
Indonesia, and there is less optimism in markets, such as Japan,
Singapore and the Philippines, the report said.
However, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of
China and India has rebounded strongly, and the HKSAR score has
improved considerably from previous score of 42.6 to the currently
optimistic index of 62.1, the report said.
The latest survey was conducted in December 2002 and involved 5,479
consumers across 13 Asia Pacific markets including Australia,
China, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India,
Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines,
Singapore, China's Taiwan Province and Thailand.
The respondents were asked about their sentiments on these five
variables for the next six months.
(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2003)