SINGAPORE – The Philippines was one of three markets in Asia Pacific to show a decline in MasterCard’s Index of Consumer Confidence for the first half of 2014.
The dip comes despite the Philippine economy, one of five factors measured in the index, growing at a robust clip. The country is expected to finish the year with a 6.2% GDP growth, which would give it the highest growth rate in Southeast Asia.
However, the country has also been beset by multiple government corruption scandals that played out in the first half and may have dampened consumer confidence.
While Philippine consumer confidence levels dropped to 69.4 index points, it was nevertheless a little above the overall confidence level for Asia Pacific, which hit its highest score in more than 10 years.
Consumer confidence for the region is up 6.9 Index points to 68.3 Index points for the review period over the previous one.
According to MasterCard, consumers in Asia Pacific largely remain optimistic on their economic outlook despite continued uncertainty in the global economy, with the exception of Australia.
Both Australia and South Korea at 37.2 points and 41.9 points scored well below the regional confidence level.
However, MasterCard noted that compared to six months ago, 12 out of the 16 Asia Pacific markets surveyed recorded both positive sentiment and experienced either some or significant improvement in consumer confidence.
Myanmar, Indonesia and India recorded the Asia Pacific region’s highest consumer confidence scores, with 94.1 index points, 94.0 Index points and 89.1 index points, respectively.
Other significant, double-digit improvements in consumer confidence were recorded by Thailand up 14.6 Index points; Indonesia up 11.3 Index points; and New Zealand up 10.8 index points.
Taiwan’s consumer confidence also grew by a large percentage, up 24.6 to 57.6 index points.
The six-month consumer confidence outlook is based on five economic factors including the economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, and their quality of life. Zero represents as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral.
