SINGAPORE, Dec 18 - Asian consumers are growing more confident about the economy and are more willing to loosen their purse strings for electronic gadgets and entertainment, a survey released on Thursday found. Marketing information company ACNielsen said its Asia Pacific Consumer Confidence Study, based on 7,230 online responses from 13 Asian countries, showed Asians were more optimistic about the economy and their future then they were six months ago. The one exception was the Philippines, battling a toxic mix of security, political and economic woes. "What Asia experienced in 2003 was unprecedented," ACNielsen said in a statement, referring to the Iraq war and the SARS outbreak this year that killed more than 800 people, most of them in Asia. "However, our findings show that SARS-hit places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan have regained their confidence relatively quickly, while India and Thailand are even more upbeat," said Elizabeth Lee, ACNielsen's director online research services.
The survey was conducted in October, three months after the World Health Organisation declared Asia free of SARS and as economic data showed the region was rebounding from the disruption in trade and business caused by the outbreak. The survey showed 89 percent of respondents from India, 84 percent from Thailand, 76 percent from Malaysia and 69 percent from Singapore believed their local economies would improve further in the next 12 months. Philippines was the only country in which 75 percent of respondents expressed growing concern about their economy -- a seven percentage point rise from the last survey conducted in May. ACNielsen gave no reasons for the falling confidence but the Philippines has struggled this year with bombings, political uncertainty ahead of 2004 elections and a chronic fiscal deficit. Nearly 90 percent of respondents across Asia said they would spend spare cash on items like computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, flat screen TVs, clothing and out-of-home entertainment. Health replaced economy as the top worry, with 64 percent of respondents saying they have become more concerned about this in the past six months. Lee said the SARS outbreak and media reports had raised awareness about health issues.//www.reuters.com