Consumer confidence in Malaysia improved 10 points from 84 percentage points (pp) in the second quarter of 2016 to 94 in the corresponding period this year, but that's not good enough, said an economist today.

Senior research fellow at the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) Shankaran Nambiar told Malaysiakini that this is because Malaysia still lags behind some of its Asean neighbours.

The findings are from the latest Nielsen Global Survey of Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions report, which places Malaysia at a "pretty low level," with 94 pp being below the benchmark index of 100.

Singapore has 89pp, but Vietnam got 117pp, while the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, recorded 130pp, 121pp and 107pp, respectively...