NZ confident of riding storm

By JIM EAGLES business editor

New Zealanders are the most confident about the economy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The ACNielsen Online Omnibus Survey, which polled 8000 internet users in the region in mid-July, found that just 16 per cent of New Zealanders are worried about the economy worsening.

That was the lowest level of concern recorded in the region.

The mean in the 13 countries involved was 33 per cent and the highest was 50 per cent in Indonesia.

Even the usually cocky Australians were more nervous about the economy, with 20 per cent citing it as their biggest worry.

Presumably because of that confidence, fewer New Zealanders said they had deferred a major investment or purchase in the last six months than anywhere else.

Only 34 per cent said they had put off significant spending, well below the regional average of 51 per cent, and nearly half the Hong Kong figure of 60 per cent.

Of the New Zealanders who said they had postponed spending, 29 per cent said they had put off buying a property, 20 per cent had deferred buying shares and 24 per cent had decided against an extended holiday.

Indonesians were the most confident about job security - possibly because they had more pressing things to focus on - with just 11 per cent recording it as their major worry, but New Zealand was the next most relaxed, with only 17 per cent feeling insecure.

By contrast Australia, at 26 per cent, was just below the regional average of 27 per cent, and the highest level of concern was the 39 per cent recorded in Hong Kong.

However, the high level of economic confidence recorded by New Zealanders is still a little down on the findings of a similar survey last November.

"Although New Zealanders appear relatively unconcerned about major issues, our confidence in the global economy appears to have slipped," said ACNielsen's local marketing director Jocelyn Hong.

"Only 42 per cent of us are now confident we will recover from a global recession within the next year, compared with 49 per cent in November 2001."

But, she added, New Zealanders and Australians "aren't as pessimistic as consumers in Asia-Pacific overall, where 99 per cent consider themselves in the grips of a global recession".

What New Zealanders are worried about - as emerged during the election campaign - is crime.

Crime was cited as the major worry by 17 per cent, nearly three times the regional average of 6 per cent, and more than double the Australian figure of 8 per cent.