The Hindu Business Line : India tops in consumer confidence

Bangalore, Nov. 2 Runaway food prices are a concern, but that has not deterred the Indian consumer’s confidence, which ruled highest among 52 countries surveyed by The Nielsen Company in its latest round of confidence survey.

Followed by Indonesia (115) and Norway, India, however, showed resilience in planning to manage its personal finance judiciously between savings and investments on shares and mutual funds.

“At present it looks like the Indian economy and people’s confidence is on a fast trajectory. Everything looks positive from the point of view of the Indian job market, people’s finances, savings, and investments. If things continue the way they are heading, downturn in India will soon become history,” said Ms Vatsala Pant, Director- Consumer Research, The Nielsen Company.

Global index

Consumer confidence rose in 45 out of 52 countries compared with six months ago (Ukraine and Saudi Arabia were added in the latest round of the survey). Nielsen’s global consumer confidence index has also seen an increase and has jumped to 86 points this month from 77 index points in April — the lowest this year — indicating a rebounding consumer confidence across the world.

Among the BRIC nations, consumer confidence rose eight points in India, six points in China and four points in Russia compared with the previous quarter. Indians’ optimism over their economy coming out of recession in 12 months was the highest (67 per cent). The percentage of belief that India is currently under recession has also gone down by 10 per cent to 52 per cent this quarter.

Eight in 10 Indians are optimistic about job prospects in the country in the next 12 months, 16 per cent think it is ‘excellent’ and 69 per cent think it is ‘good’. Eighty-one per cent Indian consumers are also very optimistic about the state of their personal finances in the next 12 months.

Less risk aversion

Though savings still rule the roost, less risk aversion among Indian consumers was noticed with their choice to spend their spare cash on shares and mutual funds (44 per cent), being the third largest after China (48) and Hong Kong (47).

India’s distinction in confidence was interspersed with lurking concerns, with work-life balance topping the chart (15 per cent), overtaking job security (which was the biggest concern three months ago).

Rising food prices doubled to 14 per cent since the last quarter, moving up to No. 2 on the list of concerns. Economy (12 per cent), third biggest concern, has moved down a notch compared with the previous survey. Job security saw the highest drop in concern, falling 15 per cent from the last quarter to 11 per cent.