Share Gains Lift Consumer Confidence in Vietnam

Vietnam remains in extremely optimistic territory, posting an increase in overall confidence, led by a significant improvement in the stock market component, according to Mastercard.


Considerable gains the the local stock market helped lift consumer confidence in Vietnam. Photo: Internet

Vietnam’s consumer confidence index increased 0.7 points from the previous semi-annual survey to 94.9 points in the first six months of this year, making Vietnam one of the four extremely optimistic countries in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Mastercard.

The gain in the country’s overall score was backed by a significant improvement in the Stock market component, the U.S. technology company said in a recently-released survey.

According to Mastercard, overall consumer confidence in Asia Pacific rose 0.05 points in the first half (H1) of this year to 59.72 points, still below the 60-point optimistic mark at neutral.

Taiwan recorded the largest gain of 16.3 points to 45.3 points – a leap from ranking the lowest amongst the 17 markets in the previous survey in H2/2015 where it saw an extreme deterioration of greater than 20 points.

On the other hand, seven of the 17 markets saw a deterioration in confidence levels compared to H2/2015. The biggest decline in optimism levels was observed in Indonesia, followed by Hong Kong, and Singapore.

“Overall consumer confidence in Asia Pacific has shown marginal change with some economies facing headwinds, but the region’s emerging markets including China, India, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines remain resilient with consumers expressing optimism about economic prospects over the next six months,” said Eric Schneider, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Mastercard Advisors.

Between June and July 2016, 8,746 respondents, aged 18 to 64 in 17 Asia Pacific markets, were asked to give a six-month outlook on five economic factors including the economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, the stock market and their quality of life.

The index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as the most optimistic and 50 as neutral.

Tuan Minh / BizLIVE