Indiantelevision.com Team

(26 Septmeber 2006 8:00 pm)

MUMBAI: The 2006 ACNielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index has remained at the same level of 98 as in the November 2005 study. India tops the entire world for the third time in a row since the Index was established in early 2005 with the highest score of 131 in 2006. India is closely followed by the Scandinavian countries of Norway (130) and Denmark (127) which made their way into the ranking as the world's second and third most optimistic markets respectively.

The optimism amongst the Indians also translates into their perception that it is a good time for the people to buy the things they want in the next 12 months (55 per cent).

"India's booming economy shows no signs of slowing down making the nation, the world's most optimistic country again," said ACNielsen, South Asia executive director, customised research Sarang Panchal. "Along with the continued IT boom came the new generation with lots of spare cash and willingness to experiment. These well informed, well groomed consumers are now the target for all products from insurance to durables and the marketers who can touch them first will reap the benefit in the long run."

By regions, North America has maintained at its November 2005 level of 107, while in Asia Pacific showed a significant drop from 101 last year to 94. Europe more or less remained the same at 93 as against 95 last year.

While the level of consumer confidence declined slightly in Asia Pacific with New Zealand and Korea registering a significant decline, it remains the region housing the most confidence consumers of all. Hong Kong (111), Indonesia (111), Singapore (110) and the Philippines (100) registered increases of five to seven points in their index scores respectively. The least optimistic countries in Asia Pacific are Taiwan (80), Japan (79) and South Korea (54).

Though putting the spare cash on to a savings instrument is the most popular avenue for Indians but the bullish stock market also makes mutual funds and share investment the favourable options (40 per cent). In fact preference for equity and mutual funds exhibited by Indians is matched only by those in Hong Kong among all the countries studied, which underlines the spread of equity culture in India. About 7 percentage point drop is seen in Indians' desire for holidaying whereas there saw a 7 percentage point hike in people's fascination for out of home entertainment.

"Time is constraint for more and more people because of demanding career and family obligations, there is hardly anytime to take planned holidays. Mushrooming of multiplex theatres, theme parks etc in the city outskirt have offered Indian consumers more options to relax within the periphery of their own city, where they can relax by taking a day off rather than planning a long holiday," observed Panchal.

While overall consumer confidence has been sustained, globally, consumers continue to cite the economy (47 per cent), health (37 per cent) and job security (31per cent) as their major concerns for the next six months with varied levels of importance by regions. The concern about their economy rank highly in Asia Pacific and recorded a major increase in North America. For Indians too the economy is a major concern.

"Scaling crude oil price is one of the major concerns for Indians, the upward rising interest rates is probably the cause which has made the economy the biggest concern for Indians. About 30 percent of consumers are willing to repay their loans to avoid steep interest fees. But the fact that the CCI is still over the 100 mark means that the consumers still harbor hopes," said Panchal

The level of concern about Health has dropped amongst Indians, but it is still top of mind for consumers across Asia pacific. Interestingly, compared to other regions, North Americans were the least concerned about Job Security.

"With advanced health care benefiting people across the board, Indian consumers' concern about health has gone down significantly. Yet they are now more sensitive about matters concerning health and are willing to spend on the best possible service when it comes to healthcare related products. For marketers belonging to this category quality should definitely be the primary focus to lure this new age consumers." added Panchal.

Ever since reports of outbreaks of the avian flu first appeared in Europe, on the tail of an occasional mad-cow outbreak, consumers on the European continent have shown increasing concern for their own health; surpassing their North American and Asia Pacific counterparts with nearly four in 10 Europeans cited Health as one of their major concerns after the Economy. Asia Pacific follows at 36 percent and North America at 34 percent. Topping the world with the greatest number of health-conscious consumers were Hungary, Czechoslovakia and people in the Baltics.

The ACNielsen Online Consumer Confidence and Opinion Survey is a half-yearly survey that aims at gauging current confidence levels, spending habits/intentions and current major concerns of consumers across the globe. The ACNielsen Consumer Confidence Index is developed based on consumer's confidence in the job market, status of their personal finance and their readiness to spend. The latest survey, conducted in late May/early June, polled about 21,780 internet users in 40 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, North America to the Baltics.