A recent MasterCard survey shows that the most popular reasons why Malaysian consumers save money are for investments (59 percent), retirement (52 percent) and buying property (28 percent).

Economic uncertainties have also caused 70 percent of Malaysian consumers to either maintain or increase their savings level in case of unforeseen emergency expenditures. Meanwhile, a majority of Malaysian consumers (31 percent) plans to save between one to 10 percent of their income in the next six months.

The MasterCard survey was conducted between March 23 and April 18 2009 and involved 9,211 consumers in 21 markets.

Most of the consumers in the 21 markets surveyed are looking to save more in the next six months due to economic uncertainties. Vietnam tops the list of savers (52 percent), followed by India (47 percent), United Arab Emirates (47 percent), South Africa (47 percent), New Zealand (46 percent), Philippines (45 percent), Qatar (44 percent) and Australia (43 percent).

On the other hand, the main reasons consumers are less compelled to save is because they feel that they do not earn enough to save (61 percent), high inflation (34 percent) and simply because they believe in enjoying life (29 percent).

Source: Bernama