Singapore, India named Asia-Pacific's biggest luxury spenders : MasterCard

The study suggests that robust economic growth has encouraged consumers in Singapore and India to have higher degrees of intentions to owning luxury goods than those of other Asia-Pacific countries: more than half of those polled for the survey said they planned to spend more, or the same, on these items over the next 12 months.

Singapore (57 per cent), Japan (50 per cent) and India (46 per cent) lead other countries in terms of present ownership of luxury goods; nearly half of the consumers there own at least one "luxury" item worth more than US$500.

In contrast, consumers in Indonesia (8 per cent), Malaysia (22 per cent) and the Philippines (23 per cent) own the least number of luxury items.

The latest survey was conducted from March to April 2011 and involved 6,022 consumers from eight markets (India, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand)
via internet surveys, and personal, telephone and computer-aided telephone interviews. On average, close to 40 per cent of those polled claimed to own luxury goods, with Indians more inclined to own jewellery. Singaporeans were found to prefer luxury watches, jewellery, designer clothes and leather goods, while the Japanese favored designer clothes, leather goods and luxury watches.

“This survey shows that luxury shopping varies dramatically across emerging and developed markets," Porush Singh, senior vice president and group head, product development, global products and solutions, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, MasterCard Worldwide, said. "As with other recent surveys, it is the most buoyant and resilient economies that can afford to spend on luxury items, and India and Singapore would certainly fall into that category.

“Luxury shoppers remain loyal to their brands, even when the economic climate isn’t favorable,” added Singh.