Consumers in South Asia appear to be the least nervous or anxious
Consumers in South Asia appear to be the least nervous or anxious among those in the seven global regions surveyed by JWT.
JWT, an international marketing communications group, released the results of its latest AnxietyIndex study on Thursday. The 10-year-old AnxietyIndex tracks the levels and drivers of consumer anxiety in 27 countries.
Only 63% of the survey respondents in South Asia said they were very or somewhat anxious to what was happening in the world, their country and family life.
This compares to the global average of 71%. The figure is 64% in North America, 69% in Western Europe, 71% in North Asia, 73% in South America, 75% in Eastern Europe, and 82% in the Middle East/Africa. This online survey, which was done in October last year, did not cover Malaysia. The South Asian countries monitored were Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
According to the topline global report, Pakistan and Spain are the most anxious countries, with the least anxious being Finland and Germany. Nine in 10 respondents in Pakistan reported that they were anxious. “Economic anxiety is a pervasive theme in every region except South America and Eastern Europe,” the report says,
South Asians are most concerned about the economy and the cost of living ? albeit to a lesser extent than respondents elsewhere.
The top anxiety for Singapore is the cost of living, while for Indonesia and India, it is the stock market and gasoline/petrol prices, respectively. The Thais cited a non-economic issue as their top anxiety: natural disasters.
For Pakistan, the most anxious country, the main anxiety is gasoline/petrol prices. Spain, meanwhile, worries most about the unemployment rates.
Globally, the current cost of living generates the greatest anxiety, says the report. Unemployment is also driving anxiety around the world.
Perceptions of when the economy would improve vary widely around the world. In Hong Kong, 65% of the respondents expected it to happen this year but 51% of the respondents in Spain mentioned 2014 or later.
Happiness also varies greatly around the world, with Brazil, Indonesia and India being the happiest among markets that JWT studied.
In Brazil, 45% of the respondents said they were very happy. Thailand and Singapore fall in the middle range, with 20% and 19% respectively.