Indonesia, Philippines most bullish, India third.
By R. Chandrasekaran
CHENNAI: Globally, consumers are more confident during the just concluded second quarter of the current calendar year about their personal finances, jobs and spending plans. However, Indian consumers are less optimistic based on a survey, which would add further headaches to policy makers even as they are trying to take steps to win investors’ confidence to revive the economy.
The improved economic condition in the U.S. are probably driving the Americans to be more confident, with higher home prices, increasing job opportunity and significant rise in the stock markets.
Interestingly, China’s consumers also joined the list, along with Japan, a quarterly survey from Nielsen on Global Information and Insights Company indicated. Its index for global consumer confidence advanced 1 point to 94 following the two points rise in the preceding quarter. However, any reading below 100 suggests consumers’ pessimisms towards the overall outlook. Nielsen conducted its survey from May 13 to May 31 covering over 29K consumers spread over 58 markets.
The survey also indicated Japan’s improved confidence on the back of its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revive its economy.
However, it was Indonesia, which was the most bullish market for consumers. It was followed by Philippines, with India in third place.
As far as the European consumer level is concerned, rise in taxes, big jobless claims, and the government’s reduced budgets weighed on the households continuously as consumer confidence dropped in 14 of the 29 constituents.
An interesting aspect of the survey is that Pakistan, Greece and Colombia recorded the largest rise in consumer confidence level over the first quarter despite the fact that Greece is the most demoralized markets worldwide.
The survey results are certainly not good for India, who is hoping for a turnaround. Significantly, the survey was conducted in May and there is every possibility that if the survey is done in June or July, there could have been more pessimism since the strong sliding of Rupee is impacting the consumers’ spending habits.
TO contact the author, email to rchandrasekaran@americanbazaaronline.com