PETALING JAYA: Malaysians have shown a significant growth in optimism on the country's direction with seven out of 10 saying that the country is heading in the right direction, according to a survey.
"This is a remarkable 19% increase compared to a year ago," said Ipsos in a statement on Wednesday (Nov 6).
It said while the optimism levels in other Southeast Asian countries and the world have remained constant or declined over the past year, Malaysia's sustained growth in optimism indicates a positive outlook among its citizens.
"Malaysia's economic sentiment has grown significantly by 33% over the past year, where now 72% of Malaysians believe that the current state of economy is good, in contrast to the sentiment for the rest of the world which remains at the same level of 37% to 38%," it said.
Ipsos said despite a dip early this year, Malaysians' monthly consumer confidence index is also growing, with a 12% growth from October 2023 to October 2024.
"While the global average remains constant at 49%, Malaysia is outperforming the rest of the world by 9% in October 2024," it said.
However, corruption, it said, remains the top concern in Malaysia, followed by unemployment and poverty, where globally the top worries are inflation, crime and poverty.
"There is a surge of concern on crime and violence among Malaysians as compared to October 2023. However, Malaysians' worry on inflation has declined significantly," it added.
The Ipsos survey is conducted monthly in 32 countries via an online portal system, with 500 Malaysians surveyed each time.
