According to the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) survey, Indian consumer confidence about general economic conditions, employment scenario, income and spending has weakened.
Domestic households also see inflation inching further, another RBI survey showed.
“Consumer confidence declined marginally for the current period due to weak sentiments across survey parameters except household spending,” RBI’s bi-monthly Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS), which was conducted from November 2-11, 2024, showed.
The Current Situation Index (CSI) declined by 0.7 points to 94.7 in September 2024 from 94 in November 2024.
The survey collects current perceptions (compared to a year ago) and household expectations about the general economic situation, employment scenario, overall price situation, own income and expenditure in 19 major cities.
Households showed somewhat higher optimism in the year-ahead outlook for key economic parameters other than prices. The Future Expectations Index (FEI) improved by 0.5 points to 121.9 in the latest survey.
The CCS survey showed that households expected higher expenditure over a one-year horizon on the back of higher essential and non-essential expenditure.
Separately, the RBI’s Inflation Expectations Survey of Households showed that the average household perception of current inflation rose by 30 basis points (bps) to 8.4 percent over the previous survey round. A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point.
Average inflation expectations for the three-month horizon declined modestly by 10 basis points to 9.1 percent, while for the one-year period it rose 10 basis points to 10.1 percent.
In the monetary policy announcement on Friday (Dec 6), the RBI raised its inflation projection for fiscal 2025 to 4.8 per cent from the earlier estimate of 4.5 per cent. Consumer price-based index (CPI) inflation has been revised up to 5.7 percent from 4.8 percent in the third quarter of FY2025 and increased to 4.5 percent from 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter.
Compared to the September 2024 round of the survey, a somewhat larger share of respondents expected prices and inflation to rise next year, mainly due to higher pressure from food items and housing-related expenses, the RBI survey showed.