Outlook gauge perks up in Q2

Chinese consumers' confidence has picked up in the second quarter, with those living in towns and villages more confident than those in big cities, a Nielsen survey revealed yesterday.

"Many consumers in tier- four and tier-five cities, mainly towns and villages, appear to have been less affected by the downturn in the first place, so recovery is less of an issue for them. In fact, many of those cities are still on the earlier part of the growth curve," said Mitch Barns, Greater China President of the Nielsen Company.

According to the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index, the largest survey of its kind, Chinese consumers' index was up 6 percentage points than the previous quarter, climbing in the global list to the sixth place from tenth in the second quarter.