According to a survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India in January, Indian consumers showed increasing optimism about general economic conditions and household income.
The January round of the bimonthly consumer confidence survey elicited current perceptions (compared to a year ago) and expectations a year ahead on general economic conditions, employment outlook, overall price situation and own income and spending of 19 years. big city The latest survey round was conducted from January 2 to January 11, covering 6,047 respondents, the RBI said.
“Consumer confidence improved further for the current period as well as the year ahead; The Current Situation Index (CSI) continued on its improvement path for the ninth survey round from a historic low recorded in mid-2021 and increased by 1.3 points in January 2023 on improved sentiments on general economic conditions and household income.” The results of the survey appeared.
The current situation index rose to 116.2 in the January survey from 114.9 in the previous round. A number above 100 indicates optimism.
On the other hand, the one-year-ahead outlook, as reflected by the future expectations index (FEI), rose 1.3 points to its two-year high on the back of better optimism on general economic conditions, employment and income. next year.
The future expectations index rose from 83.5 to 84.8, even though it is still in pessimistic territory.
The index of general economic conditions for the year ahead improved sharply from 11.6 to 17 in the latest survey, while sentiments for employment and spending improved slightly from 21.2 to 21.6 and 70.2 to 70.8, respectively. Survey respondents showed optimism over income levels, with a jump in the year-ahead index from 44.9 to 47.6, the survey results showed.
To be sure, consumers’ sentiment on current spending showed some moderation, but their expectations for total spending for both essential and non-essential items improved marginally.
Meanwhile, a separate survey by the central bank showed that the perception of domestic inflation for the current period has come down by 20 basis points to 9.6%.
“Inflation expectations of households for the three-month-ahead period increased by 10 bps, while their one-year-ahead expectations remained unchanged from the November 2022 round,” the survey showed.
Among consumption categories, the proportion of respondents perceiving a price increase was highest for the food group for both horizons, as was observed in the previous two survey rounds.
The survey results noted, “Respondents expect higher price pressures for household durable goods and housing costs over the next three months as compared to the previous survey round.”
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