Vietnam's consumer confidence falls: survey

Among surveyed Asia- Pacific economies, Vietnam saw the biggest quarterly decline in consumer confidence, according to Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intensions in the second quarter, which was released Tuesday.

The survey shows that consumer confidence rose in China, India, Japan and the Philippines, but declined in 10 other Asia-Pacific economies. Vietnam reported the biggest quarterly decrease in confidence of eight points, followed by Australia and Malaysia, which dropped six and five points, respectively, from the first quarter.

"The Vietnam retail environment has evolved from one of the growing markets in 2012 to one that is struggling to remain with sales levels between two percent and three percent most of the last 12 months," said Vaughan Ryan, managing director of Nielsen Vietnam based in Ho Chi Minh City.

"For the first time in well over a decade, Vietnam experienced a negative Consumer Price Index in February, and foreign direct investment was down over 20 percent in the first quarter from last year. Consumers are feeling less optimistic about their immediate future, but they are confident in the longer term, as most expect the economy will improve in the year ahead," he said.

The survey polled over 30,000 online consumers in 60 countries and regions throughout Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and North America.

Nielsen N.V. is a global performance management that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Endi