KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 ― A global Ipsos survey showed that there is a rising concern about the cost of food, groceries and household supplies since the Covid-19 outbreak started.
Malaysia was no exception with 64 per cent of its respondents saying they felt they were spending more on these items.
The country ranked fifth highest among 16 countries polled for these concerns, with Turkey and Argentina being the highest, both at 86 per cent.
Other countries with significant rising concerns include the US at 69 per cent, the UK at 65 per cent, India at 62 per cent and Australia at 52 per cent.
On the other hand, countries like Japan and South Korea polled slightly slower, at 37 per cent and 32 per cent respectively.
Another section of the survey polled respondents about having to purchase more expensive items and paid for delivery charges. It also found that Malaysia scored one of the highest at 57 per cent.
Malaysia ranked fourth among 16 countries polled with Peru leading the pack at 78 per cent, India at 59 per cent and the UK at 58 per cent.
Countries that polled lower than Malaysia are the US at 52 per cent, Australia at 51 per cent and Japan being significantly lower at 17 per cent followed by South Korea at 9 per cent.
The survey has also polled the 16 countries for priorities in their spending since the Covid-19 outbreak started.
Spending on utilities ranked the highest on the priority list with 65 per cent out of 500 Malaysian respondents polled saying they spent more on utilities since the outbreak started.
The next on the priority list is food, groceries and household supplies, where 64 per cent said they spend most on this followed by 42 per cent spending on healthcare.
Products and services that received less spending since the outbreak started include entertainment where only 25 per cent said their spending had increased, personal care and beauty products at 20 per cent, education and children at 17 per cent and apparels at 14 per cent.
Ranking even lower on the priority list were insurance payments at 11 per cent, housing loan also at 11 per cent, transportation at 10 per cent and taxes at 9 per cent.
The survey was conducted between May 22 and June 5 among 17, 997 adults across 16 countries.
