KEY POINTS:
New Zealand investors are less optimistic than most of their peers in the Asia-Pacific region, according to an international investor "tracking study". The ING investor sentiment study found robust investor confidence across most of the 13 Asia-Pacific countries surveyed, despite the sub-prime crisis.
But New Zealand and Australian investors were more conservative than most, except for those in Japan.
New Zealand investors were in general positive about the investment environment in the near future.
But in the current climate, they tended to favour low-risk investments like fixed interest products, as opposed to products like equities.
Only 29 per cent believed the economic situation here would improve in the next three months, while 42 per cent felt it would deteriorate, and 56 per cent felt it had deteriorated in the past three months. Investors in India and China were the most bullish, with more than 70 per cent of respondents believing their countries' economic situations would improve soon.
They were followed by Malaysians (60 per cent) and Filipinos (56 per cent).
Japanese respondents were the least optimistic, with only 26 per cent believing their economy would improve.
Local shares were the most popular choice of investors in more than half of the surveyed countries, but New Zealanders cited property as their preferred investment tool (29 per cent). Finance company failures in New Zealand were thought to have made investors more cautious of any investment.
- NZPA
