Southeast Asian consumers unfazed by looming food price hike

69% of Singaporeans say they can handle it.

According to a survey by Nielsen, consumers in Southeast Asia are relatively unconcerned by looming food inflation, with the majority indicating there is enough flexibility in their household budget to absorb a rise in food prices without having to make significant sacrifices to their spending in other areas.

More than three quarters (78%) of Thai consumers said there was enough flexibility in their household budget to handle a rise in food prices without having to make major spending cuts elsewhere, followed by Indonesia (70%), Vietnam (70%), Singapore (69%), Malaysia (66%) and the Philippines (58%), with all Southeast Asian markets scoring well above the global average of 50 percent. 

While the majority of Southeast Asian consumers were unlikely to make significant spending cuts to cope with rising food prices, many indicated they would look to adjust their outlay on out‐of‐home dining, new clothes and accessories, recreation and entertainment, and snackfoods to off‐set food inflation.

Food categories which were most vulnerable during inflationary times included discretionary products such as candies, cookies and other sweets, chips and other snack foods, carbonated beverages and alcoholic beverages, while staple products such as meat, poultry, fish, seafood, fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables and dairy products appeared largely immune to consumer cutbacks in the face of rising food prices.