Vietnam remains among 4 most optimistic countries worldwide despite Covid-19

With the Consumer Confidence Index of 126, Vietnam continued to rank fourth in the world for having the most positive consumers, after India, the Philippines and Indonesia, according to a latest survey.

Source: the Conference Board® Global Consumer Confidence™ Survey in collaboration with Nielsen

Compared to the last quarter of 2019, Vietnamese consumer confidence remains stable with one-point increase, from 125 to 126, according to the Conference Board Global Consumer Confidence Survey in collaboration with Nielsen, a global measurement company.

The main reasons for this slight increase are consumer optimism about job prospects improved, while optimism about personal finances and spending intentions remained stable.

However, consumer confidence index seemed to decrease compared to the same quarter of last year (down 3pp) which is largely predictable due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other measures from the survey suggest that, prior to the slump in demand, consumers primarily saw the spread of Covid-19 as a health crisis rather than an economic one. As a result, health replaced the economy as the top concern in many markets, with the high percentage of consumers identifying health as their biggest concern over the next six months, including Vietnam. 

In Q1, 49% of the Vietnamese consumers (up 4% vs Q4 2019) continued to rank health as their top concern, the highest level globally, followed by Pakistan (47%), Latvia (40%) and Singapore (39%). Health had been the top concern for four consecutive quarters. 

As job security was ranked in the top two concern in Q1, there was a jump in the number of those concerned about job security (up 3% vs Q4 2019) while the percentage of consumers who were care about work/life balance decreased sharply, from 27% to 22%.

Source: Conference Board® Global Consumer Confidence™ Survey in collaboration with Nielsen

“With people increasingly aware of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on jobs, even part way through quarter one, their spending intentions reflected this uncertainty. On the other hand, as companies began to experiment with working from home, the blurring between home and work life has its challenges but also represents a real-time time saving for many employees” said Louise Hawley, managing director of Nielsen Vietnam.

In this quarter, there was a new factor that came back into the top 6 concerns of Vietnamese consumers: Parent’s welfare and happiness, with 10% of respondents indicating that they’re worried about it. “With schools closed since the Tet break, many parents have struggled with having children at home all day while worrying about their education. This comes alongside the demands of working, for many also working from home, so it’s natural that this has come to the surface as a worry for parents,” Hawley added.