India consumer confidence sees largest decline in APAC: Mastercard

Consumer confidence in India witnessed the largest decline for the first half of this year compared to July-December period of 2016, as consumer outlook on the economy and quality of life parameters suffered, says a Mastercard survey.

According to the Mastercard Index of Consumer Confidence released on Monday, while consumer sentiment remained stable in 11 out of the 18 Asia Pacific markets, India witnessed the largest deterioration in confidence level across the region.

However, India (86.0, down 9.3) still remains in very optimistic territory as per the Mastercard index.

Between April and June 2017, 9,153 respondents, aged 18 to 64 in 18 Asia Pacific markets, were asked to give a six- month outlook on five economic factors, namely economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, stock market and quality of life.

The Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as the most optimistic and between 40 and 60 as neutral.

"While all five components saw declines, consumer outlook on the economy (-11.0) and quality of life (-11.6) registered particularly large drops," the report said.

China at 88.2, was ranked higher than India and it witnessed improvement in all five components, particularly in employment (up 12.1).

Across Asia Pacific, overall consumer confidence was in optimistic territory at 66.9 points, a slight improvement from 62.7 points six months ago, driven mainly by a bullish outlook on the stock market and employment.

South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia also saw significant leap in confidence, the survey said.