Yahoo Finance 
Singaporeans are among the most pessimistic about the economy
Its consumer confidence score dropped to a 7-year low at 33.6.
While the rest of the Asia Pacific remained hopeful amidst a jittery global economy, Singaporeans grew pessimistic in the first half of 2016 as citizens are discouraged by their quality of life, income, and employment.
The latest MasterCard Index of Consumer Confidence revealed a “significant deterioration” in Singapore’s score that plunged 10.7 points to 33.6 in 1H16, the city-state’s lowest since June 2009.
It scored sharp declines in all of the survey’s five component indexes including employment (-11.0 to 29.3), economy (-9.9 to 30), regular income (-12.0 to 47.5), stock market (-6.2 to 24.6), and quality of life (-14.5 to 36.6).
“This is linked to stagnating global demand and a poor outlook of the current labour market,” the report said.
The survey was done between June and July 2016 with 8,746 respondents aged 18-64 in 17 Asia Pacific markets.
Of the markets surveyed, nine emerged with greater optimism with Taiwan (+16.3 to 45.3) and the Philippines (+12.9 to 95.2) as top gainers. Indonesia registered the biggest slump (-14.7 to 61.8), followed by Hong Kong (-12.4 to 32.1), and Singapore, Mastercard said.
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