Consumer confidence slides in December as India feel lack of liquidity & cash crunch

The India Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (Consumer Confidence), as measured by Thomson Reuters in partnership with Ipsos, shows a drop by 0.6 percentage points over the previous month (November).

The monthly PCSI result is driven by the aggregation of the four, weighted, sub-indices: the PCSI Employment Confidence (“Jobs”) Sub-Index, which is up 0.3 points; the PCSI Economic Expectations (“Expectations”) Sub Index, which is up 0.1 points; the PCSI Investment Climate (“Investment”) Sub-Index which is down 1.4 points; and the PCSI Current Personal Financial Conditions (“Current Conditions”) Sub-Index which is down 1.5 percentage points over last month. 

“While fuel prices have stabilised and brought some reprieve to consumers, Indians are experiencing cash crunch and lack of liquidity for big ticket purchases and savings, due to inflation and high interest rates, leading to pessimism,” said Parijat Chakraborty, Country Service Lines Group Leader, Public Affairs, Corporate Reputation & Customer Experience, Ipsos India.

These are findings of an Ipsos online poll conducted November 23, 2018 – December 7, 2018.  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 in is particularly valuable in its 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.

The Thomson Reuters/ Ipsos India Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI), ongoing since 2010, is a monthly national survey of consumer attitudes on the current and future state of local economies, personal finance situations, savings and confidence to make large investments.