More than half of consumers globally expect job prospects to be good to excellent in the year ahead, a survey showed on Tuesday. That helped push global consumer confidence up in the second quarter to its highest since the first quarter of 2007, according to the survey by global information and insights company Nielsen. India overtook Indonesia as the most optimistic consumer market, while Portugal and Slovenia were the most pessimistic.
Japan and Hong Kong saw the biggest declines in confidence from the previous quarter.
The Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index rose 1 point in the second quarter to 97, according to the survey, conducted between May 12 and 30.
The reading headed closer to the 100 mark that signals optimism among consumers. US consumers were the eighth most upbeat globally as optimism about job prospects surged. "Payroll growth is visible across a range of (US) sectors, which is also positive," said Venkatesh Bala, chief economist at the Cambridge Group, a part of Nielsen. "However, real-wage growth of workers has been anaemic so far, and needs to pick up substantially, along with other improvements in the labour market, in order for consumer spending to increase in a broad-based way."
By region, consumers in the Asia Pacific were most confident about job prospects with 65 percent seeing favourable job opportunities for the year ahead, up from 64 percent in the first quarter. Globally, 56 percent of respondents to the survey viewed their personal finances positively, up from 55 percent over the past three consecutive quarters.
North America reported the biggest increase, with 63 percent of respondents feeling secure in money matters over the next 12 months, up from 59 percent in the first quarter. While consumer confidence in debt-laden euro zone economies remained weak it improved sharply in Italy, which Nielsen attributed to confidence in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's new government, formed in February. Confidence also continued to slowly improve in Greece, France and Spain.
Outside the euro zone, consumer sentiment in Britain rose to its highest level since 2007 as the country's economy continued to outperform euro zone peers. Ukraine, meanwhile, saw a rebound in consumer sentiment after a sharp fall in the first quarter following a political crisis and tensions with Russia after Moscow annexed the Crimea region. The Nielsen survey covered more than 30,000 online consumers across 60 markets.
Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index in the second quarter, 2014 (change from Q1 survey in brackets):
Top 10 index readings Bottom 10 index readings
India 128 (+7)
Spain 62 (+1)
Indonesia 123 (-1)
Ukraine 61 (+5)
Philippines 120 (+4)
France 60 (+1)
China 111 (0)
Hungary 56 (+2)
UAE 109 (-5)
Greece 55 (+2)
Denmark 106 (+6)
S. Korea 53 (+2)
Thailand 105 (-3)
Italy, Serbia 51 (+6,-1)
United States 104 (+4)
Croatia 50 (+5)
Hong Kong 103 (-8)
Slovenia 49 (+1)
Saudi Arabia/Canada 102 (0,+3)
Portugal 48 (-3)
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