Indonesia still confident despite crisis, survey says

Thursday, 30 July 2009

The Jakarta Post

Indonesia has topped a Consumer Confidence Index of 28 countries surveyed in the second quarter this year, The Nielsen Company Indonesia announced Thursday.

The survey shows that Indonesia ranks first in the Index, with 112.1 points, up by 8.5 percent compared to the first quarter.

Indonesia’s index outshines the Philippines (102.6 points), China (94.4 points) and Singapore (87.2 points).

“This year has been a good year for consumers from a price perspective and especially when we compare it with 2008, when households were really doing it tough with double digit increases in many categories.” Executive Director Catherine Eddy said Thursday.

She said Indonesian consumers had become very buoyant when the presidential election was in the offing.

“The previous presidential elections saw high levels of consumer confidence and the July election in Indonesia came and went without incident,” Catherine said, adding that people were confident in the political stability of Indonesia and this bodes well for the economy