About the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence H2 2009
This issue of In:fact is based on the MasterCard Worldwide Survey of Consumer Purchasing
Priorities (MWICPP) for Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa, conducted by Synovate.
The MasterCard Worldwide Survey of Consumer Purchasing Priorities is released twice yearly
and provides valuable insights into consumers' discretionary spending priorities for the
six months ahead. The latest survey was conducted from 1 October to 9 November 2009 and
involved 10,623 consumers from across Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Three new
African markets have been added to this survey - Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria - bringing
the total number of markets surveyed to 24. Data collection was via online, personal,
telephone and Computer Aided Telephone interviews, with the questionnaire translated to
the local language wherever appropriate and necessary.
The survey is designed to gauge the perceptions of people who have the experience and
means of engaging in a wide spectrum of economic activities, which dictate the performance
of the national economy. Thus, the basic requirement to qualify as a respondent is that
he / she owns a bank account and is between 18 to 64 years old.. These requirements provide
a feasible mechanism to maximize the inclusion of people who belong to the middle and upper
income groups who are most likely to have disposable income in excess of spending on necessities
and play a significant role in the performance of the consumer market and the economy.
The distribution of age and sex of the middle and upper income groups in each market is taken
into consideration when designing the sampling frame. A standard minimum income is not used
to qualify the respondents across all the markets covered in this survey due to difference in
purchasing power parity and differing levels of income required to qualify for a credit card.
To ensure consistency and comparability with the sample in previous studies, a quota based on
sex and age is applied.
Face-to-Face Interviews, Standard Telephone Interviews, and Computer Aided Telephone
Interviews (CATI) were used. Online survey was the method used for Hong Kong, South Korea,
Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand; CATI was the method of data collection
used for Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Kenya; Standard
Telephone Interviews for South Korea and Thailand and traditional Face-to-Face Personal
Interviews was used for the remaining markets.
For each market, the survey has a margin of Sampling Error of plus or minus four percentage
points at the 90% Confidence Level except China and India where because of the larger sample
size, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. Similarly,
because of the significantly much larger sample size for Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa,
the sampling error is plus or minus 1.0% or less.
The Index score is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and
50 as neutral.
For full reports, please go to
www.masterintelligence.com.
