A third of S’poreans spending less on X’mas due to rising costs; 3 in 5 hopeful about 2023

SINGAPORE - ‘Tis the season to be thrifty.

If you found yourself less willing to splurge on presents and parties this Christmas, you would have been in the company of a third of Singaporeans who told a YouGov survey they had planned to cut back on festive spending.

One in five of those polled expected to have a normal Christmas with no change in their expenditure. Among Generation Z (usually defined as those born between 1997 and 2012), the proportion crept up to just over a quarter.

Only about one in 10 Singaporeans polled said they would be spending more than usual, with the rest saying they were unsure or do not celebrate Christmas.

The online survey by the British polling firm, which was conducted on Dec 15, involved 1,027 Singaporean adults aged 18 and above.

When asked how much they expected to spend, more than a third said between $101 and $500. About half said they expected to spend less than $100, with half of them wanting to spend less than $50.

Just under a tenth said they would spend $501 to $1,000, while only one in 20 said they expected to exceed the $1,000 mark.

Speaking to The Straits Times, CIMB economist Song Seng Wun said the response was not unexpected, given rising costs, as well as the proximity of Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan 22, 2023, to Christmas.

“People are feeling the pinch every day when they go to the market and buy their essentials, or when they go out to eat. So they are very aware that prices are increasing, and therefore might not be as willing to splurge on merry-making during the festive season,” said Mr Song.

He added that Singaporeans are still spending in other areas, such as holiday travel, noting that in the post-pandemic era, people are more likely to spend on themselves.

“We still see that the labour market remains strong, and there are no major areas with job cuts such as manufacturing or in the services sector, so people still have the ability to spend. The younger generation, especially, have a Yolo (you only live once) mindset, so they will want to go abroad with the resumption of travel,” Mr Song added.

As the year comes to a close, fewer Singaporeans have said that 2022 was a bad year for the nation, compared with 2021, according to another survey conducted by marketing research company Ipsos.

About 57 per cent of Singaporeans polled said 2022 was a bad year for Singapore, compared with eight out of 10 in 2021.

However, rising costs and global uncertainty led to fewer Singaporeans saying they were optimistic about the year ahead, with 64 per cent saying that 2023 would be better, compared with 79 per cent from a year ago, even as the world gradually exited from the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ipsos survey polled about 24,000 people in 36 countries, including the United States, Canada, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Turkey, Thailand and Indonesia, between Oct 21 and Nov 4.

On the economic front, almost nine in 10 Singaporeans believe prices would rise faster than wages, while six in 10 believe major stock markets around the world would crash in 2023.

On the war in Ukraine, Singaporeans were on a par with the rest of the world, with 39 per cent believing it would end in 2023, compared with the global average of 40 per cent.

Around 56 per cent of Singaporeans thought it was likely that nuclear weapons would be deployed in a conflict in 2023, up 16 percentage points from the previous survey.