MUST survey: Consumer confidence index remains low

2014-1-9

From：Macau Daily Times

A survey from the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) Institute for Sustainable Development shows that Macau consumers continued to lack confidence in spending money in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2013.
The consumer confidence index of 86.32 indicates a slight increase of 0.13 percent, compared with the 86.12 in the third quarter (Q3). Still, the index remains below the benchmark of 100 points, a score which is regarded as coming from a lack of confidence in consumers.
Residents were invited to grade different aspects from 0 to 200, including the local economy, employment, commodity prices, living quality, house purchasing, and stock investment.
Among these six factors, consumers are confident in the local economy (117) and employment (125.2), with both recorded scores above the general standard of 100, an increase of 3.46 percent and 4.72 percent respectively from Q3.
The other four aspects registered decreases. As the lowest scoring indicator, property purchases dropped by 9.3 percent to 41.7 points, the lowest since 2010. The decline in real property purchasing reflects the fact that consumers have been less willing to buy housing units.
In addition, the confidence in stock investment fell by 0.59 percent to 84.34 points, suggesting that consumers are reticent to invest during this volatile period for the stock market. As for the public’s confidence in commodity prices, figures suggest that pressure brought by the inflection was intensified as the index went down from 57.16 in Q3 to 53.96 in Q4, a decrease of 5.6 percent.
A consistent trend emerged in all 21 quarterly surveys: recipients with a higher level of education tend to possess higher confidence in consumption, as do those with higher incomes. Interviewees aged between 50 and 59 showed the lowest consumer confidence in the last quarter.
The survey collected 1012 valid responses from local residents above the age of 18 from December 16–23 via computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI).
The consumer confidence is commonly considered to be a leading indicator in predicting economic and consumer tendencies.
The survey on consumer confidence index was launched in 2009 and has been running ever since. GY

Copyright@Macau Daily Times