Consumer Confidence of Urban Indians tumbles in January 2022 – Refinitiv-Ipsos monthly India PCSI

The Refinitiv-Ipsos monthly Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI), among Urban Indians, does not present a rosy picture for January 2022 -  the survey shows the consumer sentiment has nosedived by 3.4 percentage points, over the previous month. The monthly PCSI, which is driven by the aggregation of the four weighted sub-indices, has dropped across all four of them. The Investment Climate (“Investment”) Sub-Index has plunged 5.4 percentage points; the PCSI Current Personal Financial Conditions (“Current Conditions”) Sub-Index is down 5.2 percentage points; the PCSI Economic Expectations (“Expectations”) Sub Index,has dipped 1.8 percentage points; and the PCSI Employment Confidence (“Jobs”) Sub-Index has decreased 1.4 percentage points, over the previous month.

Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India, elaborating on the findings, said, “Rising cases of the Omicron variant have directly impacted the confidence levels of Urban Consumers, leading to the downbeat sentiment;  also because of the restrictions and curfews we find confidence for investments for the future and personal finances for the day to day running of households being majorly hit. Even confidence for the economy and jobs have been impacted. The cautious, restrictive approach followed by the state governments, instead of a complete shutdown may lessen the long-term adverse impact vis-à-vis the previous two years. Financial crunch can also be attributed to bust after the boom – holiday spends, year end to the new year first week. Targeted steps to stop mass transmissions will be the need of hour as opposed to all pervasive closures. We’ll have to watch and react accordingly.”