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China consumers most upbeat in Asia
By Marianne Bray
HONG KONG, China -- China consumers are the most optimistic in Asia, undeterred by a shuddering world economy. While consumers were generally cautious in MasterCard's latest survey on sentiment in the Asia-Pacific region, released on Wednesday, China bucked the trend. Not only did Chinese tip the region's confidence scales, they were more optimistic than in the previous survey. China, the world's most populous country, is Asia's second-largest economy after Japan, and is seen growing at about 7 percent a year for the rest of this decade. The December survey asked around 5,000 people from 13 Asian countries about their sentiments on employment, the economy, income, stock market and their quality of life for the first half of 2003. Chinese were particularly positive about jobs and the stock market in their $1.2-trillion economy, more than one year after the Asian giant joined the World Trade Organization. Shanghai leads wayWithin China, Shanghai respondents were the most hopeful looking ahead, although those in Beijing and the southern city of Guangzhou were almost as positive. While China was upbeat, people living across the border in Hong Kong were less optimistic, but hinted they thought better times were ahead. In recent days, Hong Kong's beleaguered economy has shown signs of revival, with growing exports and more tourists arriving. "The recent improvement in the economic fundamentals suggests that the worst is probably over and Hong Kong is poised for a strong cyclical upturn," said Mastercard's economic advisor, Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong. Elsewhere in the region, Malaysia, New Zealand and Thailand continued to reflect positive consumer sentiment, while India showed marked improvements. But the previously optimistic markets of Australia, Taiwan, Singapore and Korea all showed downturns. Japan was the least optimistic of all Asian countries, with respondents most anxious about the economy, employment prospects and the quality of life. The downbeat views come as companies in the world's second-largest economy struggle to survive amidst deflation and a decade-long economic slump, Within Japan, there appeared to be a slightly more hopeful outlook for the stock market. In Asia's third-largest economy, South Korea, consumer confidence slipped from being strongly optimistic to slightly pessimistic, despite sound economic fundamentals, according to MasterCard.
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