The ASEAN Consumer Index rose by 1.5 points to 69 points in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to a survey conducted by the Financial Times Confidential Research (FTCR), an independent research service from the Financial Times newspaper.
Customers shop at AEON Mall Long Bien Trading Centre in
Hanoi, Vietnam (Photo: VNA)
The survey is based on interviews
with 5,000 consumers in the five ASEAN nations of Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,
the Philippines and Thailand.
It showed faster quarterly growth on
average in all three components of the index: household income, discretionary
spending and consumer borrowing. Discretionary spending rose faster than
income, which contributed to the acceleration in regional consumer borrowing
growth.
The fourth-quarter index rise
coincided with stronger GDP expansion among the five ASEAN economies. While GDP
growth for the last quarter has yet to be released, these economies in general
have been experiencing accelerating growth since the first quarter of
2017 after going through a slowdown in 2016.
The ASEAN Household Income Index rose 0.7 points to 72.7. Thai consumers were
the biggest factor behind the income index improvement, contributing just over
half of the rise. Malaysians were the only group to report slower income growth
during the quarter.
Meanwhile, the ASEAN Discretionary
Spending Index rose 3.1 points to 69.3, indicating faster growth in
non-essential spending compared with the previous quarter. All five consumer
groups reported faster discretionary spending growth. Thai consumers were the
biggest contributors to the spending index rise, followed by Filipinos.
According to FTCR, the faster
discretionary spending growth relative to household income growth has pushed up
borrowing demand, especially in the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Hence,
the Consumer Borrowing Index rose 0.6 points to 65 in the final quarter of
2017.
Source: VNA
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