2010: Food and entertainment still top Singaporean priorities

Consumers in Singapore are expected to keep dishing out the dollars on dining out, electronics and clothes for the next six months.

According a survey by Mastercard, 57% of consumers surveyed in Singapore said they plan to maintain their spending on discretionary items into the first half of 2010. In fact, this is a marginal increase compared to the last survey done six months ago when 55% of respondents said they would keep spending at their current rate. 14% said they planned to increase their expenditure, and 30% said they planned to be thrifty and decrease their spending on nonessentials.

Dining and entertainment ranked as the top spending priority (72%) for consumers, followed by consumer electronics (53%) such as flat screen TVs, hand-phones, PCs, laptops and game stations. Forty-eight percent said they planned to spend on fashion and accessories, including clothes, cosmetics and skincare.

Eight out of the top ten discretionary spending categories saw an increase in the number of respondents who said they planned to buy items in that category. Dining and entertainment, and consumer electronics saw the largest jumps in popularity with consumers compared to six months ago, with a 29 and 26 percentage point increase respectively.

The survey was conducted from 1 October to 9 November 2009 and involved 10,623 consumers from across 241 markets in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Data collection was via personal, online, telephone and computer aided Telephone interviews, with the questionnaire translated to the relevant local languages and is done to provide insights into consumers’ discretionary spending priorities for the six months ahead in 10 different categories.

Dr. Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, economic advisor, Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide said, “The latest findings are positive for a stronger outlook of domestic consumption in 2010 as the global economic conditions continue to stabilize and trade starts to revive, and barring any unexpected shocks to the economy, we expect private consumption to continue to grow.”

Interestingly, other spending priorities of Singaporeans are investing self improvement courses and continuing education for professionals. 14 % more respondents said they planned to spend on continuing education, compared to six months ago.

“It is interesting to see that more consumers want to upgrade their personal and professional skill-set. This category of expenditure is also proving to be resilient in the face of any potential cutbacks in spend. This is a very positive indication of a mobile and dynamic labor market in which workers continue to invest in upgrading their skills so that they can take advantage of any potential career advancement opportunities in the future,” added Dr.Wong.