Economy, Jobs And Food Prices Top Consumer Concerns: Nielsen

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 (Bernama) -- The economy, job security and increasing food prices are the top three Malaysian consumer concerns over the next six months, according to the latest global online consumer confidence findings from Nielsen. The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Confidence Survey found that nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of Malaysian online consumers indicated that the state of the economy is still their biggest concern, an increase of five per cent quarter-on-quarter. Nielsen Malaysia managing director Kow Kuan Hua said although economists have revised upwards the 2011 full-year gross domestic product growth forecasts, both they and consumers are concerned whether Malaysia's export-oriented manufacturing growth rate would continue to rise amid the challenging global economic circumstances. In a statement here Wednesday, he said job security was ranked second (13 per cent) followed by concerns over increasing food prices (10 per cent) and worries over debt (nine per cent), at third and fourth places respectively. However, 64 per cent of online respondents in the country rated their job prospects as excellent or good over the next 12 months. "With this, Malaysia maintains its seventh place among 56 countries in the top 10 most optimistic job prospects list," said Kow. On the back of rising concerns over rising food prices, the survey also showed that 85 per cent of online consumers said they have changed spending patterns to save on household income, a rise of six per cent from a quarter ago. Kow said this was reflected in the measurement of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), with 73 FMCG categories experiencing month-on-month decline in value share in November but rebounding in December (only three categories declined) due to the festive build-up and year-end sales. "However, in total 45 categories reported a decline in value in the fourth quarter as compared to 22 categories three months ago," said Kow. The total FMCG growth rate of 5.2 per cent in the fourth quarter was actually lower than the annual growth rate of 6.8 per cent, suggesting the slowdown in the last month (September) of the third quarter was actually prolonged. In addition, while spending less on new clothes (58 per cent) and cutting down on out-of-home entertainment (56 per cent) remained the two top strategies to manage discretionary spending, more respondents have switched to cheaper grocery brands (53 per cent as compared to 48 per cent in Q3) to manage their household budgets in the last quarter of 2011. The Nielsen Global Survey of Online Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions was conducted between Nov 23 and Dec 9, 2011 and polled more than 28,000 Internet consumers in 56 countries throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. --BERNAMA