Consumer confidence falls to three-year low
Consumer confidence falls to three-year low
Viet Nam's consumer confidence index dipped 8 points to 87 in the third quarter of this year, marking the lowest confidence level since the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest findings from Nielsen, a global market research company.
According to the survey, conducted between August 10 and September 7, at least 73 per cent of Vietnamese said this was not a good time to make purchases.
Viet Nam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan were also the bottom-five countries and territories that were the least optimistic about local job prospects.
Ninety-one per cent of Vietnamese respondents reported change in their spending in order to save on household expenses. This rose from 86 per cent in the second quarter and 84 per cent in the first quarter.
As for the items that were cut back the most, 68 per cent of Vietnamese consumers pointed to gas and electricity, followed by new clothes (67 per cent), out-of-home entertainment (66 per cent) and telephone expenses (55 per cent).
With fuel prices rising five times within the third quarter; 24 per cent of Vietnamese respondents said utility bills (electricity, gas, heating) were their biggest concern. This was followed by the economy and job security at 20 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively.
Only 42 per cent of Vietnamese respondents believed their personal finances in the coming year would be good to excellent, down from 51 per cent in the second quarter.
Similarly, 40 per cent of Vietnamese online respondents believed their local job prospects would be good to excellent over the next 12 months, a drop of 6 percentage points from the second quarter and 18 percentage points since the beginning of the year.
"The subdued third quarter results reflected an overall trend that is neither positive nor negative as consumers are treading water very carefully," said Dr. Venkatesh Bala, chief economist at The Cambridge Group, a part of Nielsen.
Meanwhile, according to the survey, global consumer confidence increased one index point to 92 in the third quarter of this year, up four index points from the same period the previous year.
Nielsen's survey shows that North America and Europe reported the only quarterly consumer confidence increases, rising three index points to 91 and one point to 74, respectively.
The Asia-Pacific (100) and Middle East/Africa (98) regions remained flat in the third quarter, and Latin America fell two index points to 94.
Begun in 2005, The Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions, measures consumer confidence and major concerns and spending intentions of more than 29,000 consumers in 58 countries. The survey is conducted online.
Consumer confidence levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate the degrees of optimism and pessimism.
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