Consyl Publishing & Publicity Ltd

Consyl Publishing & Publicity Ltd

Home > Our Publications > New Zealand Outlook > 2007 > July

Health, economy cause concern

CONSUMER confidence in New Zealand has slipped one point in the first half of 2007, scoring an Index of 120 and making it the fourth most confident country globally, according to Nielsen's latest Global Online Consumer Confidence Index.
These and other findings were part of the twice-yearly global Nielsen Online Consumer Opinion Survey, the largest of its kind, which polled 26, 486 people in 47 countries and more than 500 New Zealand participants on their perception of the local economy, job prospects, spending habits and major concerns.
While confidence has remained stable in New Zealand, consumers continue to cite Health and the Economy equally at 40 per cent as their major concerns over the coming six months.
"The resilient housing market, as well as the continuing employee job market may have influenced the continued confidence this period", said Steve Mitchell, managing director, Nielsen New Zealand."
On job prospects and personal finances, Kiwis continue to be optimistic with over eight in ten (84 per cent) saying job prospects over the next 12 months looked good or excellent, significantly higher than the global average of just 52 percent.
Over seven in ten (77 per cent) believe that the state of their personal finances in the year ahead will be good or excellent, well above the global average of 58 per cent.
The number of Kiwis who thought it was a good time to buy slipped a couple of points this period to 58 per cent from 60 per cent in second half of 2006. This compares to 40 percent globally.
The survey results reveal that there is a substantial number of New Zealand consumers focused on debt reduction with close to half (47 per cent) allocating their spare cash to paying off debts, credit cards and loans - a one point increase from December 2006. Other financial priorities that ranked highly among New Zealand consumers included saving (42 per cent), holidays (36 per cent) and home improvement/decorating (30 per cent).
"Kiwis are increasingly concerned with paying off debt, which may indicate that confidence levels will decrease further in future surveys. It will be interesting to see the impact of interest rate rises and the changing labour market will have on confidence levels going forward" said Steve Mitchell.