Vietnam, HK have confident consumers

Vietnam, HK have confident consumers

HONG KONG: People in Vietnam and Hong Kong are the most upbeat
about their economic prospects in the Asia-Pacific region while
Filipinos are the gloomiest, a survey published on Friday found.

Vietnam scored 92.1 out of 100 in the quarterly consumer
confidence index by MasterCard International, up from 90.8 in the
previous quarter, followed by Hong Kong with a score of 85.5.

China ranked third in the survey of nine regional countries
and territories, which was conducted in the second quarter of
2005, scoring 82.3 out of 100, up from 81.3 in the last quarter.

Indonesia, which topped the previous quarter's survey with a
score of 94.7, slumped to fourth place with a confidence ranking
of 70.8, just ahead of Singapore with a score of 69.7.

Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines, which achieved
a score of just 28.9 out of 100, respectively, filled the bottom
four places in the index. -- DPA