Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of the March 2020 round of its Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS)¹. The survey was conducted during February 27 – March 7, 2020 in 13 major cities, viz., Ahmedabad; Bengaluru; Bhopal; Chennai; Delhi; Guwahati; Hyderabad; Jaipur; Kolkata; Lucknow; Mumbai; Patna; and Thiruvananthapuram. Perceptions and expectations on the general economic situation, the employment scenario, the overall price situation and own income and spending are obtained from 5,365 households across these cities.

Highlights:

I. Consumer confidence, as measured by the current situation index (CSI), in early March 2020 remained broadly close to the all-time low, which was recorded in the previous survey round. Expectations for the year ahead, as gauged by the future expectations index (FEI)², were largely unchanged from the last round (Chart 1).

Note: Please see the excel file for time series data

II. Sentiments on the general economic situation, employment scenario and household income remained pessimistic (Tables 1, 2 and 5); however, there were some improvements in expectations for the year ahead.

III. Households perceived some easing in the inflation pressure (Table 3 and 4); however, sentiments on discretionary spending remained in the contraction zone (Table 8).

¹ The survey results are based on the views of respondents.

² CSI and FEI are compiled on the basis of net responses on the economic situation, income, spending, employment and the price level for the current period and a year ahead, respectively. CSI/FEI = 100 + Average of Net Responses of the above parameters.