Singaporean women are more risk-taking than their male counterparts when it comes to making investments, according to a new survey by Friends Provident International.
The Investor Attitudes Survey for Q3 2012 found that 24% of female investors in Singapore prefer taking a high-risk-high-return strategy, compared to only 14% of men.
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In Singapore female respondents also hold a more optimistic outlook on the current and future state of the investment markets, with 58% saying the markets have improved compared to six months ago, and 58% believing that it will further improve in the next half a year. Only 50% of male investors thought the market has improved over the same period, with 44% saying it will improve over the next six months. Similar sentiments were found among Hong Kong respondents, with twice as many (26%) females than males (13%) feeling "very" financially secure.
Despite the differences, both male and female respondents in Singapore expressed their concern about the impact of America’s third set of quantitative easing (QE3) on their retirement savings. In fact, 76% of respondents in the country highlighted their intention to increase retirement savings to combat a possible rise in inflation from QE3.
Few investors in the country were, however, unable to accurately state how inflation has affected the value of the Singapore dollar, with over one-third of respondents understating the impact of inflation over the last 10 years.
Chris Gill, principal officer and general manager of Southeast Asia at Friends Provident International said this underestimation could have affected the respondents’ decisions on the amount to set aside for their retirement.
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By GlobalData"Over the survey period, we saw decisive action by both the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank who pledged financial stimulus to support the investment markets," Gill commented. "These measures sent a strong signal and seemed to instill faith in the willingness of central banks to get the global economy back on track, which had a positive knock-on effect on investor confidence."
Across the region, saving for emergencies, retirement and education of children topped the priority list across the board. The survey polled over 1500 global expatriates and domestic high net worth investors across Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE.
