Wealthy Asians are optimistic over their economic prospects but fear of terrorism is a widespread anxiety, according to a regional online survey released in the Philippines on Tuesday.
"Economic sentiment has improved and believed to strengthen further in the coming year," according to an April 28-May 11 online poll of 9,485 consumers from 13 countries and territories.
The market research outfit AC Nielsen polled Internet users from India, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan.
Many of these areas 'recently had an election or are holding their elections this year,' said Esther Capistrano, managing director of AC Nielsen in the Philippines.
"It seems that during this period, countries in these areas are optimistic, looking forward to better times with the elections," she told a news conference.
Capistrano said the respondents comprise the upper section of the region's economic classes who have access to the Internet.
The poll sought to gauge the region's sentiment in the context of its recent misfortunes, including terrorist attacks and health scares topped by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome viral epidemic and bird flu.
"While terrorism as a concern is overshadowed by job security, the economy, health and political stability, 61 per cent have some anxiety about the possibility of being caught in a random terror attack," the study concluded.
Indians, at 86 per cent, were the most optimistic about their economy, followed by Hong Kong (70 per cent), Singapore (67 per cent) and China (66 per cent).
It found that "Filipinos have the highest level of anxiety in the region over being caught in a random terror attack, either for themselves or for a family member."
By contrast only 30 per cent of respondents were optimistic in Japan; 19 per cent in the Philippines and eight per cent in South Korea.
The regional optimism average was measured at 56 per cent, about the same as the 55 per cent in the last AC Nielsen survey in October.
South Koreans (49 per cent) were the people most concerned over job security, followed by Singaporeans (41 per cent), and Filipinos (35 per cent).
Across the region, the poll found more than half of respondents would change food purchases or consumption patterns "when a health scare strikes".
Almost half "are very likely or quite likely to travel by air for holiday in the next 12 months."
Twenty-eight per cent of Indonesians listed political stability as their biggest concern, followed by 27 per cent of Taiwanese and 25 per cent of Indians.
Meanwhile, about a third of the respondents "would definitely express opinions publicly, the most popular method being through writing a newspaper."
-- AFP