Consumer confidence improves among urban Indians in May: Report

New Delhi: Consumer confidence among urban Indians improved in May, showing a 3.2 percentage points increase in the primary consumer sentiment index compared to the previous month, according to Refinitiv-Ipsos.

The monthly primary consumer sentiment index (PCSI) is an aggregation of four sub-indices that captures how a set of consumers feel about their jobs, economic expectations, investment climate and personal financial conditions.

Interestingly, in May, all four sub-indices reported an uptick compared to the previous month.

The PCSI employment confidence or job sub-index is up 4.4 points; the PCSI economic expectations sub-index is up 2.3 points while the PCSI investment climate sub-index is up 2.5 points. The PCSI current personal financial conditions sub-index is up 3 points over last month.

“Consumer confidence of urban Indians has improved over the previous month and Indians are more confident about snagging jobs, feel positive about their personal finances, investments and have more confidence in the country’s economy. This truly means consumers are buoyant and have monies to run their monthly household expenses; have funds for discretionary spends, savings and spending on big ticket items; are confident about jobs and about the country’s economic conditions which sends positive feelers,” says Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.

Meanwhile, India ranked third in the pecking order in consumer confidence across all 29 markets covered in the survey.

Since March 2023, Ipsos India moved from covering the survey only online to include an expanded offline sample, using the Ipsos IndiaBus.

"We are happy to release our first report after migrating to a new methodology, of improved metrics and a more robust urban sample for India of 2200 respondents – both netizens (400) and offline sample size (1800),” Adarkar said.

Survey results are based on interviews with over 21,200 adults across 29 markets. The survey results for these countries should be viewed as reflecting the views of the more connected segment of their populations. India’s sample represents a large subset of its urban population with social economic classes A, B, C in metros and tier 1-3 town classes across all four zones.