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)
