三分之二亚洲人实际上自认更富有

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.

富达国际投资(Fidelity Worldwide Investment)新近进行的一项调查显示，大多数亚洲人感觉自己比真实情况更为贫穷，并且预计收入不平等现象将在未来10年变得更加严重。不过，调查还发现，亚洲人普遍对未来持乐观态度，90%的被调查者认为，他们的子女将会凭借良好的教育和勤奋的工作进入中等或高收入阶层。

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.

这项由全球性资产管理公司富达国际进行的调查于今年春天在10个城市展开，这些城市包括北京、上海、孟买、新德里、香港、台北、新加坡、首尔、悉尼和东京。

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名受访者中，66%的人认为自己属中产阶级，不过他们往往并不清楚中产阶级的含义。调查还发现，86%的亚洲人不知道相对于他人来说，自己的贫穷或富裕程度如何，在这类受访者中，有66%的人认为他们比实际状况更加贫穷。

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.

富达的亚太投资信息总监吴玉慈(Betty Ng)说，此次调查结果显示，亚洲人未来在投资决策方面可能会面临着一些挑战，他们有可能过于谨慎，或是缺乏必要的风险防范意识。她举例说，中国拥有很长一段作为穷国的历史，所以一些人拥有非常保守的思维方式，他们只是想守住自己的财富──这一点可能会让中国更加难以通过刺激国内消费来推动经济增长。她指出，尽管一些投资者可能过于谨慎，另外的一些人则走向了另一个极端。她说，还有一种可能性是，一些人由于太缺乏安全感，于是就仓促冒险──为了赶上同龄人而大规模地、仓促地冒险。

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.

最近几年，亚洲中产阶级的规模不断壮大，在该地区引发了一轮新的消费热潮。例如，亚洲开发银行(Asian Development Bank)的数据显示，上世纪90年代只有21%的亚洲人属中产阶级，到了2008年，该比例翻了一番还多，达到了56%。中产阶级的定义是每天的生活消费在2美元到20美元之间的人。在中国，中产阶级的比例大大高于亚洲平均水平，中国社会科学院收集的数据显示，中国人口里中产阶级的比例已经从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."

该地区最大两个新兴经济体──印度和中国的受访者对于未来前景尤其乐观。吴玉慈说，印度人似乎对未来10年收入水平的变化以及他们子女的生活状况非常乐观。中国大陆的受访者往往也对自己未来的经济状况充满信心。

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%的孟买受访者说，他们预计自己的家庭收入未来10年将会增加，新德里的受访者中有75%持同样观点。北京和上海人的乐观度紧随其后，这两个城市分别有65%和61%的受访者表示，他们预计自己的家庭收入未来10年将会增长。

"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."

吴玉慈说，这些人充满希望。他们似乎相信，本国经济会为他们提供更多机会。他们认为自己可以掌控生活，认为自己可以有所作为。

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，东京和香港等经济更发达城市的人则明显没这么乐观，在东京和香港，分别有72%和61%的受访者认为他们的家庭收入在未来10年会停滞不前甚至降低。

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.

过去的10年里，整个亚洲的收入差距都在大幅增加，该地区的整体基尼系数从1990年的0.33上升到了2010年的0.46。基尼系数是衡量贫富差距的指标。在调查中，有76%的受访者说，他们预计未来10年内贫富差距只会愈加严重。