Economy, job security, increasing utility bills, increasing food costs and health are the top 5 concerns of the Vietnamese consumers, with economy being on top of the list. This data was gathered by Nielsen, a reputable global market researcher, during the final quarter of 2012. Between November 10 to 27 of 2012, Nielsen conducted surveys among more than 29,000 respondents with Internet access in 58 countries and found that Vietnam is among that 19 countries that showed increase in their consumer confidence for Q4 2012, but only with a one-point increase.Below is last year’s trend on Vietnam Consumer Confidence:Q1 2012, Vietnam Consumer Confidence Index down 5 points to 94 from final quarter of 2011.Q2 2012, Vietnam Consumer Confidence Index up one point to 95.Q3 2012, Vietnam Consumer Confidence Index drops 8 points to 87.Q4 2012, Vietnam Consumer Confidence Index stood at 88, 11 points lower than the same quarter of its previous year.

Consumer Confidence on the global outlook is at 91 in Q4 2012 which is a two-point increase from the same period of 2011. This number, however, is 1 point lower from the prior quarter. Consumers from across the globe are surrounded with increasing economic concerns prompted by major causative factors including the Eurozone crisis, the United States fiscal cliff and China’s rising inflation.The same study showed that 79 percent of Vietnamese respondents believe they were in a recession. This number is higher compared to the 76 percent in Q3. This is just one among the several factors that reflect the fairly stagnant consumer confidence. Around 37 percent of the respondents described their job prospects in Q4 as good/excellent. This is 40 percent decline from the previous year’s figures. 44 percent of Vietnamese consumers are positive about their personal finances in the coming year.

Though 2 points better than Q3, the figure is largely lower than the 54 percent of the previous year.The concern about the country’s economy urges more Vietnamese to set aside spare cash. 91 percent of respondents claimed to have made adjustments on their household expenses, while 71 percent have reduced their clothes shopping activities. The renewed spending attitude is seen to continue throughout 2013 amid the global economic and political uncertainty.