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Bangladeshis optimistic about economy: MasterCard

Country gains 4.3 points in consumer confidence: survey

Star Business Report
Bangladeshis are very optimistic about their outlook on the economy, employment prospects and the quality of life in the second half of 2016, according to a MasterCard survey.
The country recorded a gain of 4.3 points to stand at 71.6 points in MasterCard's Index of Consumer Confidence. It stood at 67.3 points in the second half of last year.
Syed Mohammad Kamal, country manager of MasterCard, and Gitanka Datta, vice-president of the company,
unveiled the results of the survey yesterday at the capital's Sonargaon hotel.
By and large, consumer confidence in the Asia-Pacific region has been steady, with nine out of the 17 markets
surveyed showing stability.
With a negligible increase of 0.05 points in the overall score, the Asia Pacific region continues to sit just below the 60-point optimistic mark.
For the entire survey between June and July, some 8,746 respondents aged between 18 and 64 were asked to give a sixmonth outlook on five factors: the economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, stockmarket and their quality of life.
The index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero being the most pessimistic and 100 the
most optimistic; 50 is classified to be neutral territory.
In Bangladesh, respondents from Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet took part in the face-to-face survey. Save for the stock market, Bangladeshi respondents expressed optimism regardingall the other factors of the economy.
Respondents are pessimistic about whether the local stockmarket index will go up over the next six months. As a result, the country has lost 5.6 points in the index.
Bangladesh's stockmarket has been lacklustre since the 2010 stockmarket crash. DSEX, the key index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange, stood at 4,569 points on Wednesday. It was 5,334 points even less than two years ago. Overall, male respondents were more optimistic compared to their female counterparts. People below 30 are also more hopeful compared to those above 30, Kamal said.
Eric Schneider, senior vice-president of Asia Pacific of MasterCard Advisors, said the overall consumer confidence in the region has shown marginal change, with some economies facing headwinds.
But the region's emerging markets including China, India, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines remain resilient, with consumers expressing optimism about economic prospects over the next six months.
"Even as emerging Asia continues to drive the region's growth, governments and businesses need to ensure stability
and strong fundamentals in order to weather future external shocks," he said in a statement. Taiwan recorded the largest gain of 16.3 points to stand at 45.3 points -- a leap from being the lowest ranked of 17 in the previous edition of the survey.
Consumer confidence in China (76) posted slight increases of 1.4 points.
The developing markets of India (97.6), the Philippines (95.2), Vietnam (94.9) and Myanmar (99.8) remain extremely optimistic in their outlook.
Sri Lanka shed 4.2 points to stand at 38, dipping into the pessimistic territory, while South Korea, despite a 0.4 points increase, remained in pessimistic territory.
Declines were recorded in seven out of the 17 Asia Pacific markets, with significant deterioration seen in Indonesia (-14.7), Hong Kong (-12.4) and Singapore (-10.7).
The decreases recorded in Hong Kong, Japan (-8.8) and Singapore moved these markets from neutral to the pessimistic territory. Introduced in 1993 and released twice a year, the survey is considered as the longest running and the most comprehensive regional assessment tracking consumer confidence. Over time, the index has evolved into a regional benchmark used by the business community. This was the 47th survey. Bangladesh was added to the survey in the second half of 2012.