Forty-five percent of Chinese on the mainland feel that the national economy has been getting stronger, according to a recent global economic confidence survey conducted in 19 countries by N-Dynamic Market Research & Consultancy.

Only 8 percent of the respondents globally were bullish about the economy, the survey showed.

The survey revealed that the Chinese have the most confidence in their local economy, while the Japanese and the British were the most pessimistic, with 82 percent of those respondents saying their economies were getting worse, while 72 percent of respondents in the US were pessimistic.

Only 48 percent of Chinese respondents felt the pinch of the financial turmoil, while 98 percent of their counterparts in Japan, South Korea and the US said they were hit hard, according to the study done earlier this year among 16,000 respondents all over the world.

With respect to personal financial condition only 15 percent of Chinese respondents painted a gloomy picture, while over half of the respondents in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Mexico did.

Nearly 40 percent of Chinese respondents believed the economy would recover within six months to two years. While only 13 percent of Chinese respondents felt the crisis would last for more than two years, the world's average was 36 percent.

Priscilla Sze, managing director of N-Dynamic, said business enterprises all over the world were eyeing Chinese consumers.

"Some enterprises might enter the China market for the first time to cater to the needs of Chinese consumers. Export-oriented companies like apparel firms might switch to target the domestic market by building their own brands. It would result in more choices for the consumers at the retail level."

On the downside, 42 percent of Chinese respondents on the mainland have already tightened their belts on daily necessities. Nearly one-third of the Chinese respondents held back their property buying plans, compared to the world's average of 23 percent.

Half of the Chinese respondents adopted a wait-and-see attitude on consumption while 20 percent said it was a bad time to buy now, which still fared much better than the global average of 48 percent.

Though 40 percent of the Chinese respondents had confidence in keeping their jobs in the next six months, 30 percent expressed concern, especially those aged 36-45.

The global economic confidence survey was conducted in February among 1,000 people aged 18-60 in 57 cities across 30 provinces in China. N-Dynamic is a member of International Research InstituteS (IriS), a global network composed of independent market research agencies across 30 countries.

(China Daily April 8, 2009)