India’s Consumer Confidence In Nov Was The Lowest In Over 5 Years

On Thursday, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its consumer confidence survey for the month of November which showed that households in the country remained pessimistic about jobs and the general economic situation.

In the month of review, the current situation index (CSI) dropped to 85.7, the lowest since at least 2014, from 89.4 in September. The dividing line between pessimism and optimism is 100 for the index.

The future expectations index (FEI), which takes one-year ahead perceptions into account, was down to 114.5 from 118 in September.

"Consumers' sentiments on the general economic situation and the employment scenario weakened, but their one-year ahead expectations remained in the optimistic terrain for all parameters, except prices; expectations on income one-year ahead improved marginally over the previous survey round," said the RBI survey.

The survey was conducted in 13 cities and 5,334 households on perceptions and expectations on the general economic situation, the employment scenario, the overall price situation and own income and spending.

Most respondents felt that prices have increased during the last year, and expect a further rise in prices in the year ahead while households' sentiments on overall spending remained resilient.

Amid a further slowdown in GDP (gross domestic product) growth as seen in the second quarter of 2019-20, RBI kept its key rates unchanged on Thursday as the monetary policy committee headed by governor Shaktikanta Das decided to wait and see the effects of the five consecutive rate cuts already made this year before making more cuts.