Mumbai: Consumer sentiment of urban Indians has displayed a major resurgence of +4.3 percentage points in October amid festival cheer and above normal monsoons, according to the monthly LSEG-Ipsos Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI) India report. Last month consumer sentiment had shown a minor uptick of of +0.4 percentage points and prior to that in August was down -2.9 percentage points.
The LSEG-Ipsos PCSI maps consumer sentiment on four sub indices and interestingly, all four have shown improvement – the PCSI current personal financial conditions sub index (current conditions) is up +7.7 percentage points; the PCSI economic expectations (“expectations”) sub-index is up +3.3 percentage points; the PCSI investment climate (“investment”) sub-index is up +7.1 percentage points and sentiment for the PCSI employment confidence (“jobs”) sub-index, has seen a minor surge of +0.3 percentage points
Ipsos India CEO Amit Adarkar said, “Consumer sentiment has phenomenally improved for personal finances – for day-to-day household expenditure – and investments – making it conducive for customers to save and invest in big ticket purchases, in the festival season, particularly, when marketers are doling out promotional schemes and easy financing. Confidence around the economy is seeing a major rebound, riding on good monsoons and boosted by growth in infrastructure and domestic consumption. Even the IMF has pegged the economic growth of India at 7% for 2024. Confidence around jobs was up but somewhat sluggish as hiring is slow with companies focusing on closing a robust H2, after a tough H1, due to the elections, heat wave, heavy rains and its collateral impact. Automotive sector grew by a miniscule 0.5 per cent April to September. The festival season has seen a major upturn in consumption bringing much cheer to marketers.”
Consumer sentiment in 29 countries
Among the 29 countries, India (66.3) now holds the highest National Index score. India and Indonesia (62.1) are the only countries with a National Index score of 60 or higher.
Ten other countries now show a National Index above the 50-point mark: Singapore (58.3), Malaysia (58.2), Thailand (56.8), the U.S. (55.6), Sweden (55.4), Mexico (53.8), Brazil (53.4), the Netherlands (52.1), South Africa (51.4), and Great Britain (50.7).
In contrast, just three countries show a National Index below the 40-point mark: Japan (39.3), Hungary (35.3), and Türkiye (33.0).
Compared to 12 months ago, just three countries show a significant drop in consumer sentiment. In contrast, thirteen countries show a significant increase from October 2023, most of all in Malaysia (+12.1).