The economic slowdown has taken its toll on consumer confidence. India has fallen from the top to third in the latest round of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey and now ranks behind Indonesia and Denmark. It is the largest bi-annual study of its kind and is carried out on more than 25,000 Internet users in 50 countries.
The confidence index is measured inversely -- the higher the number, the lower the country's ranking. Its value varies from 0 to 200.
The Nielsen survey was conducted online and covered more than 30,000 consumers across 60 markets.
The Consumer Confidence Index score for India decreased by six points to 128 in the April-June quarter of 2017, from a high of 136 from the last polled survey in Q4 of 2016, market insight first Nielsen has said in a statement.
Though Indian consumers continue to remain the most optimistic globally, their confidence level slipped by 5 points to 126 index points.
In the last two rounds of the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, both India and the world witnessed dips in confidence. Now in the face of the ever-worsening economic environment, marked by rising inflation and interest rates, the subprime and credit crises, and fickle stock markets, shoulders have begun to droop in India and abroad.
India overtook Indonesia as the most optimistic consumer market, while Portugal and Slovenia were the most pessimistic.
The consumer confidence in urban India has increased by 9 points.
Consumers who had deferred purchases or preferred to stretch their money at discount retailers look all set to splurge again. The latest round of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey reveals a sharp increase in confidence levels, Indians being the second most optimistic.
According to the survey carried out by international marketing research firm The Nielsen Company, India has topped the bi-annual Global Consumer Confidence Index for the fifth time in a row.
As per the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence survey, more than nine out of ten Indians (91 per cent) are optimistic about their job prospects in the next 12 months.
As a slowdown looms, Indians remain optimistic, albeit cautiously so. The survey is the largest bi-annual study of its kind. The April round covered 28,253 Internet users in 51 markets. The previous leg was conducted on 26,000 people across 48 countries.
Global consumer confidence rose in the first quarter, with a marked increase in sentiment in the United States, Japan and northern Europe.
Feel the pinch of predatory pricing by e-tailers
India saw one of the worst terrorist attacks in November last year, when Mumbai was under siege for four days. Little under a year later, Indians perceive rising food prices as a bigger threat than terrorism.
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