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A new Indian consumer confidence index has debuted with a low score, reflecting strong pessimism on part of the consumers about the Indian economy.
The BluFin Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) for India, developed by financial information services company BluFin, has opened with a score of 39.9. Any score below 50 indicates a pessimistic outlook.
The Index is designed to measure how consumers are feeling about the economy and their ability and desire to spend across India. This index has been prepared after data collected over six months from 4,000 respondents across 18 cities. The data has been collected in association with market research company TNS.
The index is a key ‘aggregate' indicator that assesses the sentiments of urban Indian consumers with regard to the economy and spending behaviour, the developers claim. The Aggregate CCI consists of two key component indices; the Present Situation Index and the Future Expectations Index. These in turn comprise of three sub-indices; the Inflation Sentiment Index, the Employment Prospects Index, and the Spending Sentiment Index. The aggregate index touched a low of 35.8 in December 2011 before improving but consumers remain pessimistic. According to the data, concerns about the future are prominent in the consumer's mind. At the same time inflation is making things difficult for the consumer and that is why it dragged on the overall consumer sentiment.
Respondents in South India showed a marginally more positive sentiment than those in other regions, though they also remain pessimistic
Commenting on the CCI launch, Dr Sam Thomas, Strategic Advisor to BluFin, said, “We have tried to create a world-class product with sufficient Indianisation. We look forward to feedback from policy makers, economists, financial investors and others to further sharpen the CCI to become the de facto standard for measuring consumer sentiment in India.”
Mr Rashid Bilimoria, CEO, BluFin, said, “With a CCI score of 39.9, the Indian urban consumer is clearly pessimistic. While the CCI and the sub-indices have been trending upward in February and March 2012, the consumer is still very concerned about inflation and future prices.”
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