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Indian consumers’ confidence about general economic situation, employment scenario, their income and spending have weakened, according to the latest survey of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Domestic households also see inflation inching up further, showed another survey of the RBI.
“Consumer confidence for the current period declined marginally owing to weaker sentiments across the survey parameters except household spending,” the RBI’s bi-monthly consumer confidence survey (CCS), which was conducted during November 2-11, 2024, showed.
The current situation index (CSI) moderated by 0.7 points to 94 in November 2024 from 94.7 in September 2024.
The survey collects current perceptions (vis-à-vis a year ago) and one year ahead expectations of households on general economic situation, employment scenario, overall price situation, own income and spending across 19 major cities.
Households displayed somewhat higher optimism on one year ahead outlook for major economic parameters, except prices. The future expectations index (FEI) improved by 0.5 points to 121.9 in the latest survey.
The CCS survey showed that households anticipated higher spending over one year horizon on the back of higher essential as well as non-essential spending.
Separately, the RBI’s inflation expectations survey of households showed that households’ median perception of current inflation rose by 30 basis points (bps) to 8.4 per cent, as compared to the previous survey round. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Median inflation expectation for three months horizon moderated marginally by 10 bps to 9.1 per cent, whereas it inched up by 10 bps to 10.1 per cent for one year ahead period.
In the monetary policy announced on Friday (December 6), the RBI raised its inflation forecast for FY2025 to 4.8 per cent from an earlier estimate of 4.5 per cent. The consumer price-based index (CPI) inflation for Q3 FY2025 has been revised to 5.7 per cent from 4.8 per cent and for Q4 it has been raised to 4.5 per cent from 4.2 per cent.
Compared to the September 2024 round of the survey, a somewhat larger share of respondents expects the year ahead price and inflation to increase, mainly due to higher pressures from food items and housing related expenses, the RBI survey showed.
