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Consumer confidence in Singapore up in H1 2017 after 2 years of decline: Mastercard
CONSUMER confidence in Singapore has picked up in the first half of 2017, following a steady decline over the last two years.
According to the Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence H1 2017 released on Friday, Singapore saw the largest improvement in consumer confidence since six months ago – jumping 15.4 points to 45.4 points, from a pessimistic territory of 30.0 points.
Between April and June 2017, 9,153 respondents, aged 18 to 64 in 18 Asia-Pacific markets, were asked to give a six-month outlook on five economic factors, namely, the economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, stock market and quality of life. The index is calculated on a scale of zero to 100, with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as the most optimistic and between 40 and 60 as neutral.
The overall improvement in Singapore was driven by a positive outlook of the stock market and heightened expectations in economic performance, which saw consumer sentiment improving across all the components.
Deborah Heng, country manager, Mastercard Singapore said that although optimism in Singapore fell under the 50-point mark, Singapore has experienced the largest improvement across South-east Asia in the last six months.
“This bodes well for the nation as consumers in Singapore are optimistic across all indicators, from employment, to economic outlook, regular income and quality of life.”
Source: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/government-economy/consumer-confidence-in-singapore-up-in-h1-2017-after-2-years-of-decline