Optimism up in Thailand, Malaysia

Optimism up in Thailand, Malaysia

Deutsche Press-Agentur, Singapore

Consumer confidence in Thailand and Malaysia hit historic
highs during the fourth quarter of last year with optimism up for
the first half of this year, a Mastercard survey showed on
Tuesday.

Thailand emerged on top with a score of 95.1 on a 100-point
index while Malaysia was only slightly behind at 93.5.

"The ability to mobilize and effectively deploy domestic
resources to generate growth such as the case in Thailand and
China, will be (the) hallmark of long term success in the Asia-
Pacific in the years to come", said economic adviser Yuwa
Hedrick-Wong.

The half-yearly survey focused on consumers from nine markets
in Asia and Australasia.

A score above 50 indicated optimism over expectations for
employment, the economy, regular income, the stock market and
quality of life.

Below 50 signaled a pessimistic outlook.

Only Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines and Japan
expressed pessimism for the first half of this year.

Singaporean consumers were far more upbeat, with confidence
almost doubling from six months ago.

The city-state's score was 65.3, compared with 33.9 last June.

Wong noted it was the highest confidence reading since the end
of 2000.

He forecast GDP growth of 5.8 per cent this year, with about
10,000 new jobs being created in the manufacturing and services
sectors.

Wong cautioned a score of 65 "is not that robust a picture ...
barely above neutral".