Filipinos most prone to save — Mastercard
BusinessWorld | 11/13/2008 11:54 AM
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Filipino Consumers are the most likely to tighten their purse-strings, showing the greatest propensity in the region for saving in the face of a deepening global financial crisis, a survey of consumers in the Asia and the Pacific showed.
The regional survey, conducted by MasterCard and released yesterday, showed the Philippines, together with Taiwan and Korea, having the greatest number of consumers looking to cut back spending on discretionary — or non-essential — items like travel, entertainment, fashion and accessories over the next 12 months.
According to the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Purchasing Priorities, an outcome of a survey of more than 6,000 consumers in 14 markets in the Asia Pacific, nine out of 10 Filipinos consider scrimping on discretionary spending.
The results of the survey, conducted from September 1-29, followed a MasterCard report in the second half that showed a continued drop in confidence of Filipino consumers on the health of the economy and financial markets.
The growing pessimism has hurt Taiwan the most, with 90.8 percent of its consumers tightening their belts, followed by Korea with 85.5 percent.
Over 60 percent of consumers across the region spend above 10 percent of their personal annual income on non-essentials, according to the survey. It found more than half of Filipino consumers, or 55 percent, setting aside a tenth of their income for discretionary spending.
While their other Asian counterparts ranked dining and entertainment as a top priority, Filipinos said funding children’s extra-curricular education are most important to them in the list of discretionary spending items. Buying property and home improvements, as well as fashion and accessories, were also among Filipino consumers’ spending priorities, according to the survey.
Saving is important to consumers in all markets, MasterCard said, especially to the Filipinos (97%), Indonesians (96%), Malaysians (93%), Indians (92%) and Thais (90%).
"Consumers across the region are bracing themselves for tougher times ahead in 2009. In most markets across Asia, more than half of the respondents surveyed are looking at cutting back on discretionary spend," Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard economic advisor for Asia-PAcific said in a statement.
