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http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/My+Money/Story/A1Story20100119-192747.html
Top S'porean concern: Living costs
Tue, Jan 19, 2010
my paper
By Jake Chng
ABOUT 20 per cent of Singaporeans feel more confident about their personal finances in the last quarter than in the previous six months, a recent poll has found.
This was lower than the average of 27 per cent in the poll, which was conducted for the first time with 5,520 respondents from 11 countries by Visa from August to September last year.
Of these, about 500 people from Singapore - who were aged 18 to 65 and used payment cards - were polled.
Mr Robert Prior-Wandesforde, 42, senior Asian economist at HSBC, said: "Consumers in some countries are persistently happier than consumers in other countries, due to different expectations of their finances, so maybe Singaporean consumers are harder to please.
"This may also show that the Singapore economy had a much deeper recession than the other countries, and fewer consumers are confident here."
Another survey done by Mastercard last October to November had found that Singapore had the fourth-highest level of consumer confidence for the next six months, out of 14 countries polled.
This might be because things had improved here as the year progressed, Mr Prior-Wandesforde suggested.
The latest survey showed that Singaporeans' top financial concerns this year are cost of living, job security and salary changes.
Mr Prior-Wandesforde said: "The top three concerns seem to all be related to people's income situation and, during the time the survey was taken, there were many fears of unemployment."
Ms Meranda Chan, Visa's country manager here, said: "What we can see from these findings is that Singaporeans are being very pragmatic when it comes to looking ahead to 2010, and are focused on the financial concerns they can manage."
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For more my paper stories click here
Top S'porean concern: Living costs
Tue, Jan 19, 2010
my paper
By Jake Chng
ABOUT 20 per cent of Singaporeans feel more confident about their personal finances in the last quarter than in the previous six months, a recent poll has found.
This was lower than the average of 27 per cent in the poll, which was conducted for the first time with 5,520 respondents from 11 countries by Visa from August to September last year.
Of these, about 500 people from Singapore - who were aged 18 to 65 and used payment cards - were polled.
Mr Robert Prior-Wandesforde, 42, senior Asian economist at HSBC, said: "Consumers in some countries are persistently happier than consumers in other countries, due to different expectations of their finances, so maybe Singaporean consumers are harder to please.
"This may also show that the Singapore economy had a much deeper recession than the other countries, and fewer consumers are confident here."
Another survey done by Mastercard last October to November had found that Singapore had the fourth-highest level of consumer confidence for the next six months, out of 14 countries polled.
This might be because things had improved here as the year progressed, Mr Prior-Wandesforde suggested.
The latest survey showed that Singaporeans' top financial concerns this year are cost of living, job security and salary changes.
Mr Prior-Wandesforde said: "The top three concerns seem to all be related to people's income situation and, during the time the survey was taken, there were many fears of unemployment."
Ms Meranda Chan, Visa's country manager here, said: "What we can see from these findings is that Singaporeans are being very pragmatic when it comes to looking ahead to 2010, and are focused on the financial concerns they can manage."
[email protected]
For more my paper stories click here
