Following its success in Asia Pacific, MasterCard brought the MasterIndex of Consumer Confidence to the SAMEA region for the very first time this year. The survey, originally introduced in the Asia Pacific region, is established as the most comprehensive and longest-running consumer sentiment survey in this region and has grown in relevance and reputation over the past decade.
MasterIndex is the only independent survey to track consumer confidence with a sample of 2800 consumers based in South Africa, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and India, and is conducted in two waves, in February and August.
The respondents were surveyed in February 2004 to track sentiment on five variables: employment, economy, regular income, stock market and quality of life. The second component of the study tracks consumer lifestyle variables such as enjoying wealth now or saving it until late; things people aspire to most; ownership of a car or home; and decision making in the household; to name but a few.
The MasterIndex is calculated based on zero being the most pessimistic, 100 as the most optimistic and 50 as neutral. The consumer survey measured the relative optimism of the respondents in the areas of employment, economy, regular income, stock market and quality of life.
Of the seven countries researched in the region, South Africa is the 4th most optimistic overall, with a MasterIndex of 64.4. South Africans are very optimistic about regular income and are only slightly positive about the other four MasterIndex economic factors.
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia were measured as being more optimistic than South Africa with India, Egypt and Lebanon more pessimistic.
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