Hong Kong People Riding High Along With Indians and Chinese Making the List of the World’s Most Optimistic Consumers

9 June 2005
Hong Kong

Hong Kong consumers, in tandem with their Asian counterparts, are clearly the world’s most optimistic, while the vast majority of Europeans and Americans remain firmly in the doldrums, according to the latest global online consumer confidence survey from ACNielsen.

The ACNielsen Online Consumer Confidence Survey, the largest twice-yearly global survey of its kind, is aimed to gauge consumers’ current confidence levels, spending habits/intentions and current major concerns. The survey, which took place in May 2005, polled over 21,100 respondents in 38 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America and Emerging Markets (See Table 1 for country breakdown).

Table 1: 38 Markets Covered in the 2005 Global Consumer Confidence Study

Looking back over the last six months, the Asia Pacific region (41%) was the most optimistic, while less than one fifth of consumers in Europe and North America respectively believing their local economies to have improved in the first half of the year. Among all, people in India (79%), Hong Kong (75%) and China (70%) were the most upbeat the world over. (Table 2a)

“Socially and economically, China and India are still developing at a galloping rate when compared to the rest of the world. With economic growth rates of over eight percent per annum, Chinese and Indian consumers have greater spending power today than they have had at any time in recent history,” said Bienvenido Niles, Regional President, ACNielsen Asia Pacific.

“In Hong Kong, the economy has started to recover from years of downturn and is fast reclaiming its position as one of the most free economies and world financial centers. The rebound is affirmed not only locally but also globally, based on the findings in this survey where people’s assessment of the domestic economic performance in the last six months moved up by 11 points compared with six months ago,” Mr Niles continued.

In stark contrast, most European consumers are dwelling on whether their economies could possibly get any worse – and recovery for most people is still far off. In a global top ten ranking of the world’s most pessimistic nations, European nations accounted for seven.

Looking ahead into the next 12 months, Hong Kong again ranked among the world’s top three most optimistic following closely after India and China, the two emerging consumer powerhouses and fastest growing consumer markets in the world today. The three markets also drive Asia Pacific’s confident outlook, with at least 88 percent of Indians (up 11 points from the previous survey), 80 percent of mainland Chinese (up two points) and 71 percent of Hong Kong consumers (up three points) confident of an even brighter future in the year ahead.

At the other end of the scale, people in Pacific and Taiwan were the most pessimistic, with more than a third bracing themselves for a tougher time ahead and further deterioration in their economies. (See Table 2b for Asia Pacific Rankings)

Job Prospects/Personal Finances for the Next 12 Months

Asia Pacific leads the way in terms of confidence in local job opportunities, with 57 percent of consumers believing prospects to be good/excellent. In North America, where economic growth surpassed expectations in the first quarter, half of respondents believed their job prospects for the next 12 months to be ‘good’ while in contrast, job prospects in Europe remains bleak.

Back in Asia Pacific, Hong Kong consumers again ranked among the world’s top three most optimistic about their job prospects in the next 12 months. Indians (88%) and New Zealanders (85%) led the world and ranked first and second respectively. (Table 3)

“Consumers in Asia Pacific are optimistic on almost all fronts, similar to the confidence level with local job prospects, 57 percent were also positive about their personal finances despite the fact that this number seemed low relative to 65 percent in Latin American and 61 percent in North America,” Mr Niles added. Optimism prevailed among Indian consumers (85%) and mainland Chinese (70%) and New Zealanders (73%) also sounded positive about the health of their personal finances in the next 12 months. Hong Kong (57%) was on par with the regional average. (Table 4)

Considering the cost of things today and their own personal finances, consumers were asked if they considered now to be a good time to buy things they needed. And despite over half the world’s consumers describing their state of personal finances as ‘good’, they also said that now was not the time to spend, yet.

Again, consumers in Asia Pacific (39%) stood out from their global counterparts and seemed to be the most prepared to spend relatively speaking among which were Indians (66%), New Zealanders (59%), Hong Kong (50%) and Australians (50%).

Spending Desires

When it comes to how we spend our spare cash (after basic living expenses are accounted for) distinct regional spending patterns emerged.

On a global basis, over one third (36%) of the world’s consumers put their spare cash into Savings, followed by Out of Home Entertainment, Holidays/Vacations and New Clothes.

Asians remain the world’s super savers with 51% of consumers putting any spare cash away for a rainy day, with Filipinos topping the list (63%).

Across the region, mainland Chinese consumers were simply unbeatable when it came to shopping and formed the biggest group of fans in the region for Out of Home Entertainment (50%), New Clothes (44%) and New Technology (41%).

In Hong Kong about half consumers would prefer putting any spare cash into savings although there is a clear order of priority as to how they would spend their spare cash. Among all, Out of Home Entertainment (40%) is the first choice for Hong Kong consumers and a slight increase in preference for spending on Holidays/vacations (39%) followed by buying New Clothes (34%). (See Table 5)

Meanwhile many Europeans have also been looking forward to their summer holidays, with over one third of consumers (35%) putting spare cash into upcoming vacations, more than any other region.

“It is interesting to note that in North America, a quarter of consumers said they simply had no spare cash at all after paying basic living expenses,” added Mr Niles. “As did Koreans, with a fifth claimed they had no spare cash. It also explains why Koreans ranked among the bottom for all types of spending.”

Besides Koreans, the most cautious spenders in the world today were the Greeks and Portuguese.

Major Concerns

Expressing their major concerns over the next 12 months, globally, 45 percent of consumers’ cited the Economy as their major concern followed by Health (37%) and Job Security (36%).

“While the change of the Economy has been close to consumers’ heart, we see the level of their concern in Asia Pacific starting to stabilize since early 2004,”said Mr Niles. “Instead, a slight increase was recorded for the concern about Health and Job Security.”

Over 60 percent of people in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand were most concerned about the Economy. The second major concern for people in Asia Pacific was Job Security (39%) with China, in particular, recording a significant increase in people concerned about their jobs (56% vs. 47% in Oct 2004).

Health (35%) was a major concern among 55 percent of people in China. Korea (45%), Singapore (33%) and Indonesia (23%) also saw a double-digit increase in people’s concern about their health.

“In Hong Kong, while the Economy (57%), Job Security (45%) and Health (42%) remained the top three major concerns, it is encouraging to see that there is a declining trend in concerns about the Economy and Job Security,” Mr Niles pointed out. (Table 6)

“With ageing populations and a trend for governments to cut back on healthcare, the public are becoming very anxious about their health in many countries,” said Mr Niles. “Pressure is on governments to increase and upgrade public healthcare and facilities, and healthcare will become an even bigger and more serious concern for consumers in the future.”

About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behavior. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.