IMRB Survey: Indian Consumer Confidence and Spending

ET has a report about a survey conducted by IMRB among 2,440 households across urban and rural areas has revealed that consumers have cut expenditure on high-end products and entertainment in order to survive in the current crisis. Some of the key points of the survey are :

1. Overall, a negative sentiment towards the economy was observed across urban and rural India. Almost 55% of the total respondents were pessimistic about the current economic conditions.
2. Among consumers with positive outlook, urban India believes that sentiments in urban regions would take longer to improve.
3. Many respondents in the eastern and western parts felt that the current situation was worse than the previous year. In each of the regions, nearly 36% of the total respondents expressed concern over the current economic scenario. However, the sentiments were not that bad in the southern part of the country, where merely 8% of total respondents had negative sentiments.
4. Almost 51% of the total respondents felt that current job scenario was bad. The degree of negativity is similar across the urban and rural India.
5. Almost 78% of the respondents either feel no change or improvement in their financial health. The sentiments are better among the urban respondents as compared with their rural counterparts.

Consumer Spending
As shown in the pic above consumers seem to have adopted a cautious outlook on their spending. Expenditure on big-ticket items such as buying new home or vehicle, and on entertainment, is down. On the other hand, spending on essential items, such FMCG products, apparel and telecom, has actually improved significantly. In future, consumers are unwilling to increase their expenses of high-end products even though the economic situation is likely to improve.

Source: ET