One is in Britain, and the other right here at home

I WAS BORN under the Gemini sign in Western astrology – the twins – and, for those of you who know anything about it, I am very Gemini. I talk for two, eat for two, drink for two ...

What’s more, as an expat, I have two (or more) existences. There’s the piece of me that’s all Hong Kong and there’s my new piece: I was recently offered a wonderful career opportunity, still in market research with Synovate, in London. Originally from Scotland, I am rediscovering my British side.

It’s a strange time to be moving to what one of my Hong Kong friends unfailingly calls Poverty Isle. The UK is that much further along in this “credit crunch.” (I hate all the doom and gloom lingo surrounding our economic situation, but it’s so firmly entrenched in the vernacular that I will go along with it.) It’s a nation experiencing almost no growth, the job situation is bad and its people are settling in for the long haul.

By contrast, Hong Kong people may be feeling pessimistic but we are comparatively much better off. So far the local firms are holding off from redundancies and there’s an urge to spend in Hong Kong that will take a larger financial tsunami to quash.

I found myself wondering: am I more of a Brit or a Hong Konger in dealing with this crisis? In an intriguing exercise, I turned to our latest global economic crisis study to make some comparisons.

First let’s look at the similarities. Hong Kong and the UK are two of the most pessimistic of the countries surveyed. Of all 18 markets, the UK was the place most likely to say “the economy is going downhill and will get worse before it gets better.” Three quarters of all UK respondents chose this response. Similarly, 74 percent of Hong Kongers (the highest of all 18 markets) say things will get worse over the next 12 months (the UK followed at 73 percent). So in that sense, it seems I have not traded up or down in sentiment by changing countries.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Pessimism, or optimism, is all about confidence, all about feelings. How about actions? Surely what people are doing is far more telling.

We asked people about a series of monetary habits and whether they have changed over the past six months. Four out of 10 Hong Kongers say they have had to cut spending as compared to seven in 10 Brits. And when it comes to spending on luxuries, half of Hong Kong people have not changed their habits at all (49 percent are spending the same, the second-highest figure of all markets surveyed) whereas 78 percent of Britons are spending less, second only to the US in cutting back on the finer things in life.

Similarly, 55 percent of Hong Kongers have not yet reined in their impulse buying either, whereas 76 percent of people in the UK are indulging less than six months ago. Additionally, Brits are in the top three when it comes to changing to cheaper brands. Hong Kongers are nowhere near the top markets when it comes to switching to cheaper brands.

Back to feelings for a moment. We asked people to name their single biggest fear in terms of the current economic situation. For Brits it was “not being able to pay the mortgage or rent.” I personally fall into the not worried category, but if I had to identify with one market of all 18 surveyed it would be Hong Kong. After all, no other market listed “not being able to buy luxuries” as a top two fear. I just love what that says about Hong Kong. Luxury is the norm here.

The survey also looks at a series of attitudinal statements. When faced with the concept, “I find the economy boring and don’t pay much attention,” 41 percent of Hong Kongers agreed. This was the second highest of all markets (42 percent of Turks are yawning through the recession). By contrast, 82 percent of Brits disagreed. This thing is selling a lot of newspapers in the UK.

But the response that made me laugh with recognition? When asked to agree or disagree with “I am worried but I just can’t stop spending,” 88 percent of Brits disagreed. It seems they have themselves firmly in check. Less disciplined are Hong Kongers. Well over half of us agreed with the statement.

That last point alone has me convinced that you can take the girl out of Hong Kong, but it’s going to take a lot more to take the Hong Kong out of the girl. When I was setting up in my new flat last week, I was so keen to spend a lot of money in a short time that I retained a driver for the whole day so I could pack more shopping in. It was a very gratifying experience to see nice things piling up. I had no sense of guilt; firstly because I don’t do guilt, and secondly because I had the perfect excuse of setting up home. Anyway, I’m boosting the economy.