Despite the rising confidence among businessmen, consumers in India are less confident about the future of the economy than they were six months ago.
Fewer Indians believe the economy performed well in the past six months and they are not as optimistic about the prospects for the following 12 months.
Nevertheless, Indians still have greater confidence in their economy compared with consumers in Europe, the US and other Asia-Pacific countries.
These are among the key findings of the latest ACNielsen Asia-Pacific consumer confidence survey, the results of which have been made available exclusively to Business Standard.
Nearly 77 per cent of the Indians surveyed are optimistic that the economy will improve in the next year, compared with only 59 per cent, who believe the economic performance has improved in the past six months.
The region shares the optimism -- Singapore, Indonesia, India and China lead the list of countries that are positive about the future.
The figures for India are lower in this round than in the last two rounds. In the July round, the Indian consumers were the most positive about their economy -- 85 per cent believed the economy would improve and 86 per cent believed it had already improved in the preceding six months.
In the latest survey, China tops the list of the most optimistic countries, ahead of India, with 78 per cent looking forward to further economic improvement over the coming year, a three-percentage point increase since the last survey.
According to the survey, which was conducted online with 14,134 consumers in 28 markets across Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US, consumer perception in Asia-Pacific is encouraging, pointing to the region's resilience and willingness to spend.
The Asia-Pacific results are more striking when compared with the responses of consumers in Europe and the United States -- eight of the 10 most optimistic countries are from the region.
Around 48 per cent of Americans and 40 per cent of Europeans believe their economies have deteriorated in the past six months.
And only 43 per cent Americans and 31 per cent Europeans are optimistic about the year ahead. Significantly, 35 per cent Europeans expect to see further deterioration in the coming 12 months.
The survey also details consumer choices regarding the use of spare cash. For India, the results are mixed. While 50 per cent of Indians have cited saving money as a priority, significant numbers also express their willingness to spend on new clothes, short local holidays, home improvements and investing in shares and mutual funds.
However, the priorities are reversed in the US and Europe, where paying off credit card debts and loans assumes importance.
