Asians most confident in NZ financial markets

New study reveals statistics around investor confidence

Asians most confident in NZ financial markets

Asians have been found to be more confident than other ethnicities in New Zealand’s financial markets, according to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA)’s latest annual survey.

The survey, conducted from 23 April to 7 May, included 1,047 respondents over 18 and weighted by age, gender, religion, and ethnicity to ensure that the results properly represent the NZ population. It has a 3% margin for error at the 95% confident level.

The survey found that Asians were the most confident in NZ financial markets, with 67% expressing confidence compared to only 48% of Pacific Islanders and 49% of Maori. Pakeha/New Zealand European respondents came second with 60% while other Europeans were at 52%.

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The FMA’s latest annual survey also found that men are more confident in financial markets than women, with 65% of men expressing more confidence compared to only 57% of women.

“Not surprisingly, investor confidence can be impacted by factors such as market volatility or global events, so we expect to see investor confidence move around from year to year,” said Rob Everett, chief executive at FMA.

“What’s more important is the longer term trend which clearly shows investor confidence on the rise.”

Around 85% of the respondents have investments – the most common being work-based savings initiative KiwiSaver for 66%, term deposits for 34%, shares for 17%, and managed funds for 14%.

However, only 14% owned residential property investments while only 12% had superannuation other than KiwiSaver.

Mortgage borrowing by investors has also been declining in recent years because of the central bank’s higher deposit requirement. Investors now account for 17.6% of new mortgage lending by banks in May compared to 23.7% last year.

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