|
RI ‘the most confident country’ in facing crisis
Friday, 24 April 2009
Indonesia boasts the highest consumer confidence index in the world, a
survey by the Nielsen Company shows, effectively brushing off any threat
to economic activities here from the global economic crisis. The survey,
revealed Thursday, showed Indonesia topped Nielsen’s global consumer
confidence index with 104 points, followed by Denmark (102 points) and
India (99 points). The lowest score goes to Korea and Portugal, with 31
and 48 index points, respectively. “Indonesia is the most confident
country in facing the global crisis,” the Nielsen executive director of
customer research, Catherine Eddy, said during the announcement of the
survey.
The latest biannual Nielsen Consumer Confidence survey, conducted
between March 19 and April 2 and involving interviews with 25,140
regular Internet respondents from 50 countries, showed that global
consumer confidence had plummeted to a new record low in the past six
months.
The index fell 7 points, down from 84 to 77, according to the
latest survey. “We interviewed Internet users, whom most of whom are
well-educated and have middle- to upper-income jobs,” Eddy said. “We
found most Indonesian respondents were highly optimistic in facing the
crisis.” She added 86 percent of 533 Indonesian respondents were very
optimistic with local job prospects within the next 12 months, while
only 9 percent felt uncertain with their job security.
“Indonesians also perceive they can keep buying the things they
want and need, even during the global crisis,” Eddy said. “Indonesians
are also confident with their personal finances in the years ahead.”
The survey revealed 70 percent of Indonesians were optimistic
with regard to financial stability.
Despite the optimism, the survey also showed that Indonesians
tended to save their money rather than spend it during the crisis. “Our
survey discovered 67 percent of Indonesian respondents put their cash
into savings,” Eddy pointed out. She added the respondents were not
holding back entirely from spending. They also still spent their money
for good bargains. “They like to spend their money for certain
materials, which would benefit some companies during the economic
crisis,” she said.
The survey showed 29 percent of Indonesians liked to spend their
money on new technology products, while 25 percent spent money on
holidays. Twenty percent spent money on outdoor entertainment, 17
percent on house redecorating, and 44 percent on investment in shares or
stocks. “Actually there was a significant drop in the investment
sector,” Eddy said. “In the second half of 2008, 50 percent of the
Indonesians interviewed invested their money in stock funds.”
She added the global crisis had already influenced Indonesians to
be more careful in investing. “Surprisingly, the demand to purchase new
clothes is still similar to that in the second half of 2008 and first
half of 2009,” she said. “About 17 percent Indonesian respondents still
like to buy clothes,” she added.
|