China tops consumer confidence ranking

Confidence in China continued to move against the regional trend

By CNN's Geoff Hiscock
Asia business editor

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Chinese consumers are the most confident in Asia about the future, a new survey shows.

Japan is at the opposite end of the scale, with its consumers still worried about their income, job security and quality of life -- even though its per capita income is the highest in Asia.

The survey, conducted by MasterCard International in June, covered about 5500 consumers in 13 Asia-Pacific markets.

It looked at five variables: employment, economy, regular income, stock market and quality of life.

China scored 79.1 points on the index -- its highest score to date, and the highest in the region in the current survey.

Caution in South-east Asia

Consumers were cautious in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan, which all scored below 50.

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Japan had a reading of only 9.4 -- down from the December 2000 result and a continuation of a historical trend.

Consumers are still fairly optimistic in India, with its latest score of 59.6 only slightly down from the previous 60.4. The gain in quality of life (up from 66.1 to 73.8) was offset by the stock market decline -- down from 56.4 to 45.2.

Korea showed a remarkable turnaround -- from 25.9 in December 2000 to 54.5 in June 2001. The biggest gain has been in employment (from 16.2 to 50), signifying that Koreans believe their job and income prospects are on the way back.

MasterCard International senior vice-president Stuart McDonald said in a statement released with the survey that Asia-Pacific markets were "obviously vulnerable" to the global economic slowdown.

Change in sentiment

"Sentiment has changed so rapidly in the past few months that it is difficult to forecast what will take place even in the coming weeks," McDonald said.

McDonald told CNN that China was at a record level and continued to move against the regional trend.

Shanghai consumers were the most optimistic in their outlook for the next six months.

New Zealand ranks second in the confidence stakes with 65.6 (down from 68.4), followed by Thailand on 62.4, up from 59.7 six months ago.

Other countries above 50 include the Philippines on 51.8 and Australia on 50.8.