三分之二亞洲人實際上自認更富有大綱

Most Asians feel as though they're poorer than they really are and expect income inequality to climb over the next decade, according to a new survey by Fidelity Worldwide Investment. However, the survey also found that Asians are also generally optimistic about their future, with 90% believing that their children will manage to achieve middle or high income status by dint of good education and hard work.

富達國際投資(Fidelity Worldwide Investment)新近進行的一項調查顯示，大多數亞洲人感覺自己比真實情況更爲貧窮，並且預計收入不平等現象將在未來10年變得更加嚴重。不過，調查還發現，亞洲人普遍對未來持樂觀態度，90%的被調查者認爲，他們的子女將會憑藉良好的教育和勤奮的工作進入中等或高收入階層。

Those are the findings of a survey commissioned by Fidelity, a global asset management company, which was carried out this spring in ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Mumbai and New Delhi, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo.
這項由全球性資產管理公司富達國際進行的調查於今年春天在10個城市展開，這些城市包括北京、上海、孟買、新德里、香港、臺北、新加坡、首爾、悉尼和東京。

Among the 5,186 respondents, a majority of 66% described themselves as middle-class, though they often had difficulty defining what that meant. The survey also found that 86% of Asians have trouble identifying how rich or poor they are relative to others, with 66% of such respondents believing they are relatively poorer than in fact they are.
在5,186名受訪者中，66%的人認爲自己屬中產階級，不過他們往往並不清楚中產階級的含義。調查還發現，86%的亞洲人不知道相對於他人來說，自己的貧窮或富裕程度如何，在這類受訪者中，有66%的人認爲他們比實際狀況更加貧窮。

Fidelity's Betty Ng, director of Fidelity's Asia-Pacific investment communications, says that the findings suggest Asians may face challenges in their future investment decisions, causing them to be overly cautious or too quick to embrace risk. For example, she notes, China has "a long history of being a poor country, so some people have a very conservative mindset of wanting to guard their wealth" a fact that may complicate China's efforts to boost domestic consumption to drive its economy. While some investors may be overly cautious, she notes that others will tend to swing to the other extreme. "There's also the possibility that they feel so insecure that they want to make quick bets quick bets and big bets to catch up with their peers," she says.
富達的亞太投資信息總監吳玉慈(Betty Ng)說，此次調查結果顯示，亞洲人未來在投資決策方面可能會面臨着一些挑戰，他們有可能過於謹慎，或是缺乏必要的風險防範意識。她舉例說，中國擁有很長一段作爲窮國的歷史，所以一些人擁有非常保守的思維方式，他們只是想守住自己的財富──這一點可能會讓中國更加難以通過刺激國內消費來推動經濟增長。她指出，儘管一些投資者可能過於謹慎，另外的一些人則走向了另一個極端。她說，還有一種可能性是，一些人由於太缺乏安全感，於是就倉促冒險──爲了趕上同齡人而大規模地、倉促地冒險。

In recent years, Asia's middle class has boomed, propelling a new wave of consumption across the region. For example, though just 21% of Asia was middle-class in 1990, by 2008, that figure had more than doubled to 56%, according to the Asian Development Bank, as defined by people living on between $2-20 per day. In China, that figure is significantly higher, with data collected by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences suggesting that the middle class grew from 56% of the population in 1995 to 89% in 2007.
最近幾年，亞洲中產階級的規模不斷壯大，在該地區引發了一輪新的消費熱潮。例如，亞洲開發銀行(Asian Development Bank)的數據顯示，上世紀90年代只有21%的亞洲人屬中產階級，到了2008年，該比例翻了一番還多，達到了56%。中產階級的定義是每天的生活消費在2美元到20美元之間的人。在中國，中產階級的比例大大高於亞洲平均水平，中國社會科學院收集的數據顯示，中國人口裏中產階級的比例已經從1995年的56%上升到了2007年的89%。

Respondents from region's two biggest emerging economies, India and China, were particularly upbeat about their prospects. "Indians seem very optimistic about how their income status will change in the next 10 years and how their children will fare," says Ms. Ng."Mainland Chinese also tend to have a lot of faith in how they'll move up economically."
該地區最大兩個新興經濟體──印度和中國的受訪者對於未來前景尤其樂觀。吳玉慈說，印度人似乎對未來10年收入水平的變化以及他們子女的生活狀況非常樂觀。中國大陸的受訪者往往也對自己未來的經濟狀況充滿信心。

Fully 81% of respondents in Mumbai said they expected their household income to increase in the next 10 years, a sentiment shared by 75% of those polled in New Delhi. Next on the list of most optimistic cities were Beijing and Shanghai, where 65% and 61% of respondents said they expected their household income to go up in the next decade, respectively.
81%的孟買受訪者說，他們預計自己的家庭收入未來10年將會增加，新德里的受訪者中有75%持同樣觀點。北京和上海人的樂觀度緊隨其後，這兩個城市分別有65%和61%的受訪者表示，他們預計自己的家庭收入未來10年將會增長。

"They're hopeful. They seem to feel that the economy will offer them more opportunities," says Ms. Ng. "These are people who feel they're in control, that there are things they can do."
吳玉慈說，這些人充滿希望。他們似乎相信，本國經濟會爲他們提供更多機會。他們認爲自己可以掌控生活，認爲自己可以有所作爲。

By contrast, more developed economies such as Tokyo and Hong Kong exhibited considerably less buoyancy, with 72% and 61% believing that their household income would stagnate or worsen in the coming 10 years.
相比之下，東京和香港等經濟更發達城市的人則明顯沒這麼樂觀，在東京和香港，分別有72%和61%的受訪者認爲他們的家庭收入在未來10年會停滯不前甚至降低。

The income gap has grown significantly across Asia in the past decade, with the region's overall Gini coefficient岸which captures the degree of wealth inequality岸rising to 0.46 in 2010 from 0.33 in 1990. In response to Fidelity's survey, fully 76% of respondents said that over the coming decade, they expect the wealth gap will only continue to grow.
過去的10年裏，整個亞洲的收入差距都在大幅增加，該地區的整體基尼係數從1990年的0.33上升到了2010年的0.46。基尼係數是衡量貧富差距的指標。在調查中，有76%的受訪者說，他們預計未來10年內貧富差距只會愈加嚴重。