Filipino consumers: maintain optimistic outlook, Nielsen research

The Consumer Confidence Index indicates that Filipino consumers continue to maintain one of the highest confidence levels when it comes to spending habits in the third quarter of 2012. This was brought out from residents of 58 countries surveyed by the global media research firm Nielsen.

Since last quarter, the Philippines ranked third (following Indonesia and India) with a consumer confidence levels of 118 (increase from 112 in the same quarter last year)

Although the Index showed that spending remained "restrained" and that saving has been a prime concern of those surveyed.

Nielsen Philippines managing director Stuart Jamieson said in a statement that "This paints a positive picture for the third quarter of 2012" and that "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 was cited saying 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 research also revealed 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."

With regard to spare cash availability, 67 percent of Filipino respondents said they would rather save it. 34 percent would buy new technology gadgets, 32 percent would purchase new clothes and 28 percent would pay off debt, credit cards or loans, and 27 percent would spend it on personal leisure time like holiday or vacation. This makes the Philippines to one of the top 10 countries which gives priority to saving if there is extra money, so Jamieson.

The survey was also concerned about job security and the topic remained at the top of the list as 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. Jamieson commented that outcome as "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."

Filipinos remain bullish on the domestic economic state; with a respondence of 56 percent (in general increase of seven percentage points in the Asia-Pacific).

"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.", so according to the article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Nielsen global survey of consumer confidence and spending intentions was established in 2005. It is an institution that 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.