Consumer confidence in several Asia-Pacific countries and regions has fallen to levels similar to those seen during a regional financial crisis 10 years ago, a MasterCard survey said on Thursday.
The six-monthly survey of 13 markets in the region found six are as pessimistic or even marginally more so than they were during the last financial crisis between 1997-98.
These countries are South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand, said the survey.
The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence measures consumer confidence on a scale from zero to 100, with 100 being most optimistic.
The MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence measures consumer confidence on prevailing expectation in the market for the next six months, based upon a scale from zero to 100, with 100 being most optimistic.
The Index measures consumers' outlook toward employment, the economy, regular income, stock market and quality of life.
The survey said Indonesia and Japan were above their crisis average but had low sentiments on the six months ahead. Indonesia was at 36.7 on the scale and Japan at 29.90.
Overall, consumers in the region are only slightly optimistic about the second half year, with a score of 56.0, down from 69.3 reported six months ago.
"The decline in optimism can be attributed to the continuing global credit crunch and associated volatility in financial markets, rising inflation, mounting food and fuel prices, and slower economic growth in many of the markets surveyed," said the survey.
With a score of 87.3, Singapore finds itself the most optimistic, followed by Vietnam, China's Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and China's Taiwan, it said.
Source: Xinhua
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