Consumer sentiment across the key emerging markets of China, Southeast Asia and Latin America has been unable to withstand the impact of the Chinese economic slowdown, writes David Wilder of FT Confidential Research.

中国经济放缓已严重冲击到中国、东南亚及拉丁美洲等主要新兴市场的消费者信心。

In China itself, hopes that consumer activity would hold up as old economic drivers slowed down have faded: there is evidence that growing uncertainty about the country’s financial future is crimping household spending. A stock market crash, a depreciating currency and a sharp economic slowdown have driven Chinese consumer sentiment to record lows in the past few months.

就中国自身而言，对消费活动在原有经济驱动力疲软之际保持稳定的希望已经破灭：有迹象显示，中国金融前景不确定性的增加，正导致家庭支出收紧。A股波动、人民币贬值、经济大幅放缓已在过去数月令中国的消费者信心创下历史新低。

The fortunes of the emerging markets — and the global economy as a whole — are inextricably linked to Chinese demand and, as China has slowed, so consumer sentiment in many countries in these regions has suffered.

新兴市场的命运——及整个全球经济——与中国的需求密不可分地连在一起。因而，中国经济放缓令这些地区一众国家消费者信心普遍受挫。

China’s slowdown has hurt Latin America, where economic confidence among consumers has, with a few notable exceptions, fallen sharply. Polls of consumers show confidence among Brazilians, Chileans and Peruvians in their economies — always low — has continued to fall away, reflecting their gearing to the large-scale export of commodities to China. In Mexico and Colombia, however, which are more tied to US economic fortunes, sentiment has held up, while the anticipated election of free-marketeer Mauricio Macri to the Argentine presidency saw confidence in Latin America’s third-biggest economy actually rise last year.

中国经济放缓已影响拉美，除少数引人注目的例外，拉美各国的消费者对经济的信心均急剧下挫。消费者调查显示，巴西、智利和秘鲁的消费者对本国经济的信心一直很低，而且还在持续走低，这反映出这些国家的经济依赖于向中国大量出口大宗商品。相较而言，墨西哥和哥伦比亚因与美国经济关联更甚，消费者信心得以保持，而去年由于预计到自由市场主义者毛里西奥•马克里(Mauricio Macri)将在阿根廷总统大选中获胜，消费者对这个拉美第三大经济体的信心去年实际上上升了。

Sentiment surveys show consumers in Southeast Asia remain generally upbeat but the China effect means they are also less confident in their economies. China’s slowdown, coupled with the associated fall in commodities prices, has taken its toll on Malaysia in particular, though sentiment among Malaysian and Thai consumers is also weighed down by political uncertainty in those countries. However, Indonesians and Filipinos began feeling more optimistic thanks to increased government spending to counter the slowdown.

信心调查显示，东南亚各国的消费者情绪大致乐观，但中国的影响导致他们对经济的信心也已降低。中国经济放缓，加上大宗商品价格随之下跌，令马来西亚受损尤甚，虽然政局动荡也打击了马来西亚和泰国消费者的信心。然而，由于印度尼西亚与菲律宾采取了以增加政府支出对抗经济放缓的政策，两国民众的情绪则转为更加乐观。