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Sluggish economy won't cramp fitness in Asia-survey
Reuters - 1 hour 37 minutes ago
By Miral Fahmy
SINGAPORE, Jan 19 - The tougher the economic outlook, the harder people are expected to hit the gym, with an Asia Pacific survey showing spending on fitness and health is the least likely to suffer in the recession.
The Mastercard survey found real estate and home renovations to be the region's second most resilient sector to the global economic downturn, while entertainment, travel and eating out were also expected to remain afloat in the crunch.
"Spending on fitness and wellness has become increasingly important, especially for the younger and better educated consumers, and therefore it is not surprising that this category has emerged with the highest score," Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, MasterCard's Asia Pacific economic adviser, said.
"Dining and entertainment, which are integral to urban middle class lifestyles, are among the most robust spending priorities," he added in a statement.
MasterCard polled just over 6,000 consumers in 14 countries from New Zealand to China about their spending over the next six months on six non-essential, or discretionary, categories -- fashion and accessories; dining and entertainment; fitness and wellness; consumer electronics; personal travel and property and renovations.
The economies of Asia's biggest spenders -- Japan, China and India -- are experiencing a slowdown due to the global crunch.
But, like a similar MasterCard survey in November which showed Asians were still keen on keeping up the good life, the poll showed lifestyle-related spending would not suffer too much from the recession.
Fitness scored the highest -- at 78 percent -- with Indians and Chinese ranked as the biggest spenders in that category as well as in property, which came second at 75 percent.
Dining and entertainment tied with travel at 63 percent, while fashion and accessories, followed by consumer electronics, were seen as the least resilient.
Chinese were the region's overall biggest spenders, followed by Japanese, Indians and Indonesians.
Indonesians were seen as the most likely to spend on fashion and accessories; Japanese listed dining and entertainment as their priority and New Zealanders were the least likely to cut back on personal travel.
For full survey, click on http://www.masterintelligence.com
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