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INDONESIA'S INTERNET GENERATION LEADS THE WORLD IN OPTIMISM ON ECONOMY
JAKARTA GLOBE, 04/23/2009
The nation’s Internet users are shrugging off the global economic downturn and are currently the most optimistic of their kind in the world, with their outlook attributed to optimism following the legislative elections, according to a survey released by the Nielsen research company on Thursday.
The nation topped the Global Consumer Confidence Index — a survey conducted from March 19 to April 2 and comprised of interviews with 25,140 regular Web users in 50 markets worldwide.
The survey was not designed to accurately measure consumer confidence for the entire nation, with Nielsen estimating the country’s current level of Internet use at only about 10 percent in urban areas and even less elsewhere.
Users tended to be students, male and relatively well off compared to the country as a whole.
“Indonesia was ranked at a level of 104 points, followed by Denmark with 102 points and India with 99 points,” Nielsen’s executive director of consumer research, Catherine Eddy, said at a news conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
'The election is likely to be the biggest contributor to healthy growth in consumer confidence during the first half of the year' Catherine Eddy, Nielsen
The main reason for why Indonesian consumer confidence might have remained relatively strong during the global economic crisis was that the elections had boosted spending in the economy, which could have given rise to greater optimism.
“The election is likely to be the biggest contributor to healthy growth in Indonesia’s consumer confidence during the first half this year,” the researcher said.
Without this “election effect,” Eddy said, confidence would likely have slumped along with other countries in Asia. Coming in at the lowest positions in the index were Portugal and Latvia, tied with 48 points, and South Korea with just 31 points.
Eddy said that Internet users in highly developed countries were more likely to report lower levels of confidence this year than those in developing countries like Indonesia. This could be because more advanced economies are likely to take bigger hits than the developing world during the current crisis, she said.
Looking beyond the results of the survey, Eddy also noted that long lines seen at the local outlets of high-end global brands like Charles & Keith could signify that the country’s wealthy remain upbeat about the economy. “It shows that consumers in Indonesia are still shopping, even in a crisis,” Eddy said.
The survey carries a margin of error of plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.
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