Personal spends & investments hit the lows; confidence in economy too declines; slight uptick in sentiment for jobs
New Delhi: Consumer sentiment has nosedived by 7.3 percentage points in January 2020, according to the latest India Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI), as measured by Thomson Reuters, in partnership with Ipsos. Major cause of pessimism is due to the depleting confidence around personal spends and investments; even for confidence around the economy; though confidence around jobs, has slightly moved up.
“Inflation and prices of essential commodities have been going up due to the US-Iran stand off and uncertainty around the US-China trade war. It has jacked up oil prices and the cost of living. Also around this time, IT planning is a strain on incomes. Additionally, global slowdown has impacted India’s economic growth as well, as economies are becoming increasingly interdependent,” says Amit Adarkar, India CEO & APAC Operations Director, Ipsos.
The monthly PCSI, which is driven by the aggregation of the four weighted sub-indices, has plummeted for at least 3 of the 4 sub indices: while the PCSI Employment Confidence (“Jobs”) Sub-Index has slightly moved upwards by 0.5 percentage points, the PCSI Economic Expectations (“Expectations”) Sub Index, has significantly declined by 5.1 percentage points; the PCSI Investment Climate (“Investment”) Sub-Index has plunged by 12.9 percentage points; and the PCSI Current Personal Financial Conditions (“Current Conditions”) Sub-Index has also majorly dropped by 12.5 percentage points, over last month.
These are findings of an Ipsos online poll conducted December 20, 2019–January 3, 2020. For this survey, a sample of 500 adults from Ipsos’ India online panel aged 16-64 was interviewed online. As this is an online poll in India, representative of the online community in the country, it is not reflective of the general population; however, the online sample is particularly valuable in their own right as they are more urban, educated and have more income than their fellow citizens and often referred to as “Upper Deck Consumer Citizens” or Primary Consumers. The precision of the Thomson Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a Bayesian Credibility Interval. In his case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 5.0 percentage points for all adults. For more information on the Bayesian Credibility Interval.
