Consumer Confidence Index increased at year-end

The Macau Consumer Confidence Index (MCCI) in the fourth quarter of 2017 has shown increases in five of the six sub-indexes compared to the third quarter of 2017. The five sub-indexes were the “local economy”, “employment”, “consumer price”, “living standards”, and “housing purchase”.

The “stock investment” sub-index recorded 80.06, with a quarter-to-quarter decrease of 6.38 percent, reflecting a significant drop in the willingness of local consumers to invest in the volatile stock market.

All of the other five sub-indexes increased compared to the third quarter of 2017. While the “local economy” sub-index grew by 4.08 percent over the third quarter of 2017, it was 108.05 in the fourth quarter of 2017 and was still above the 100-point “having confidence” level, making it the second highest of the six sub-indexes.

The “employment” sub-index was 112.57, which continued the previous quarter’s upward trend with an increase of 2.31 percent.

This reveals that Macau consumers continue to be optimistic about their employment in the labor market.

The “consumer prices” sub-index was 69.17 in the fourth quarter of 2017, an increase of 1.92 percent from the previous quarter.

The “living standards” sub-index was 103.73, a growth of 3.98 percent from the third quarter of 2017.

The “housing purchase” sub-index was still the lowest (53.46) among the six sub-indexes, dropping 4.15 percent as compared to the previous quarter. This reflects the negative sentiment among potential residential homebuyers.

Overall, the survey results from the fourth quarter of 2017 showed an increase in local consumers’ confidence.

The “local economy” sub-index continued increasing from the previous quarter, exceeding the 100-point “having confidence” level.

Customers are still cautiously optimistic about “employment”, demonstrating relatively stable confidence in “consumer prices” and “living standards”. However, confidence has grown in “housing purchase,” and confidence significantly declined in “stock investment.”

The previous 34 consecutive MCCI surveys have shown that consumer confidence has increased substantially with education levels.

In the latest survey, the average MCCI for consumers with tertiary education (91.2) was 3.2 points and 7.3 points higher than consumers with only secondary (88) and primary education (83.9) respectively. MCCI for consumers with only primary education differed from year to year.

Based on the survey design, index scores range from 0 to 200, where 0 means “no confidence”, 100 is a neutral impression, and a score of 200 indicates “full confidence”.

In short, index scores below 100 suggest a “lack of confidence” while index scores above 100 imply “having confidence”.

The Institute for Sustainable Development of Macau University of Science and Technology used its computer-assisted telephone interview system to conduct the MCCI survey from December 6 to December 17, with 1,018 Macau residents aged 18 and above randomly selected and successfully interviewed to compile the index.