Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of the January 2020 round of its Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS)¹. The survey was conducted 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 5,389 households across these cities.

Highlights:

I. Consumer confidence in January 2020 deteriorated further vis-à-vis a year ago, with a decline in current situation index (CSI); the future expectations index (FEI)², however, remained in the positive terrain and indicated a marginal improvement in the year ahead over the previous survey round (Chart 1).

Note: Please see the excel file for time series data

II. Current perception on the general economic situation, price levels and household income remained weak when compared with the position a year ago (Tables 1, 3 and 5); the one year ahead expectations on employment, however, improved marginally over the previous round (Table 2).

III. Most households perceived prices and spending having increased during the past one year and expect further rise in expenditure over the next one year (Table 6); households reported lower spending on non-essential items as compared to one year ago (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.