Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) - Filipino
consumers continue to have one of the highest confidence levels to spend
in the third quarter of the year among residents of 58 countries
surveyed by media research firm Nielsen.
Despite this, the latest results of the Consumer Confidence Index
showed that spending remained "restrained" and that saving was the top
priority for those surveyed.
Just like in the previous quarter, the Philippines was ranked third,
behind Indonesia and India, in consumer confidence levels, with a score
of 118, up from 112 in the same quarter last year.
"This paints a positive picture for the third quarter of 2012,"
Nielsen Philippines managing director Stuart Jamieson said in a
statement.
"The high confidence can be attributed to the positive perception
regarding local job prospects in the country for the next 12 months,
which at this point is the second-highest worldwide."
He added that "expansion plans in the energy, transportation, telecom
industries and largely the BPOs (business process outsourcing), are
helping to create this positive perception in the country".
The Nielsen global survey of consumer confidence and spending
intentions, established in 2005, measures consumer confidence, major
concerns and spending intentions among more than 29,000 Internet
consumers in 58 countries. Consumer confidence levels above and below a
baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism.
The study also showed that Filipino online consumers felt positively
about the state of their personal finances, ranking second among the
most optimistic about their personal finances in the world.
For the third quarter of 2012, perceptions of Filipinos on whether it
was a good or a bad time to buy things that they wanted and needed over
the next 12 months showed a slight improvement in confidence with 7 per
cent saying that it was an excellent time to do so as compared to 5 per
cent a year ago. Thirty-nine per cent of the respondents said that it
was a good time to buy compared to 42 per cent in the third quarter of
2011.
When there was spare cash available in the household, 67 per cent of
Filipino respondents said they would rather put this into savings, while
34 per cent would buy new technology products. Some 32 per cent would
purchase new clothes while 28 per cent would pay off debt, credit cards
or loans, and 27 per cent would spend it on holiday or vacation.
"The Philippines is among the top 10 countries which prioritise
savings when there is spare cash in the household," Jamieson said.
Among the major concerns of those polled over the next six months,
job security remained at the top of the list as it did in the same
quarter last year. It was followed by work/life balance, health, welfare
and happiness of parents, and education and/or welfare of children.
"This is a true mirror of the Filipino culture, which is very focused
on the family," the Nielsen chief said. "These five major concerns are
all related to the family, whether it is for the parents' or children's
welfare. If you look at it worldwide, the Philippines is number one
among the top 10 countries who said that they are concerned about their
parents' welfare and happiness."
In the third quarter of last year, Filipinos' concern about the
economy was part of the top five concerns but for this year, it ranked
number six.
While recessionary sentiment increased seven percentage points in the
Asia-Pacific to 52 per cent, Filipino sentiment toward the economic
state of the Philippines improved with 56 per cent. This was a big
difference if compared to Korean and Taiwanese respondents, 86 per cent
of whom were of the opinion that they were in a recession.
The report shows that to save on household expenses, Filipinos have
lessened their expenses on new clothes, saving on gas and electricity,
delaying their upgrades on technology like computers and mobile devices,
switching to cheaper grocery brands and cutting down on take-away
meals. Should economic conditions improve, the respondents said that
they will continue doing these actions.
via Daxim L. Lucas in Manila/Philippine Daily Inquirer | Asia News Network
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