Consumer confidence down by 1.6 percentage points in August: Refinitiv-Ipsos Consumer Sentiment Index

The areas where the consumer sentiment is down include jobs, economy, and personal finances. However, it's gone a notch up for investments.

The consumer sentiment has dipped in August 2020 by 1.6 percentage points, according to the monthly Refinitiv-Ipsos Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI) for India.

The monthly PCSI, which is driven by the aggregation of the four weighted sub-indices, has shown a drop for at least three of the four indices in August. The PCSI Employment Confidence (“Jobs”) Sub-Index has fallen by a significant 4.5 percentage points. The PCSI Economic Expectations (“Expectations”) Sub-Index slid by 1.4 percentage points. The PCSI Current Personal Financial Conditions (“Current Conditions”) Sub-Index is down by 0.4 percentage points. Only the PCSI Investment Climate (“Investment”) Sub-Index has slightly moved up by 0.2 percentage points.

“Everything is unlocked, except the containment zones. But since the (Coronavirus) pandemic is far from over, offices and commercial establishments are working in a staggered way - so technically, not to the optimum capacity. The ongoing pandemic and the ad hoc/short duration lockdowns have severely impacted the smooth functioning of establishments, staving off jobs by hundreds and thousands," said Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India.

He adds that while the economy is on a painful and long-drawn rebound, job creation is the biggest challenge facing the nation. "And, we are not talking about the migrant workers here. Blue and white collar workers are affected, too. The absence of some rebound on job creation front would lead to further lowering of the sentiment in future. The confidence in the economy is somewhat shaky and rising inflation is not making things easy. We need more jobs, definitely, even as we fight the virus,” added Adarkar.

The Ipsos online poll was conducted between July 24 and August 7, 2020. For this survey, a sample of 500 adults from Ipsos' India online panel aged 16-64 were interviewed online.

As this is an online poll in India, representative of the online community in the country, it is not reflective of the general population.

The precision of the Refinitiv/Ipsos online polls is measured using a Bayesian Credibility Interval. In his case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus, or minus, five percentage points for all adults.