India slips to 4th place on economic confidence index

The uncertainties surrounding the world economy and a high fiscal deficit has pushed India to fourth place globally in terms of economic confidence of the people, a survey has said.

As per the survey conducted by research firm Ipsos, India slipped one position to the fourth place in January.

The report said that India's economic confidence declined by three points to 65% in January.

Saudi Arabia retained its top slot with economic confidence of 86%, followed by Sweden at second position (72%), Australia and Germany at third (70% each) and India and Canada at fourth (65%).

"The Indian economy is facing a series of interconnected crises as indicated by a sharp decline in economic growth due to tight monetary policy, falling domestic and foreign investment, a depreciating currency, large trade and current accounts deficits," Ipsos India MD Mick Gordon said.

"Moreover Eurozone crisis, slow global economic recovery and volatility of the international commodity prices, particularly fuel, has also further adversely affected the Indian economy, which reflects in the sentiments expressed by Indians in the poll," Gordon added.

The report, which examined citizens' assessment of the current state of their country's economy, said that the overall global average economic confidence increased by one point  to 39% in January.

India and China continue to demonstrate comparatively strong national economic confidence, with expectations and assessments across all measures well above Asia Pacific averages. Though Chinese assessments of their national economy were slightly below those of India and Australia. Economic confidence among natives of China stood at 62%.

South Africa, China, Germany and Brazil gained the most in terms of economic confidence. However, Mexico, South Korea,

And Turkey showed the least improvement.

Europe, which consistently weighs down the global average, has not seen such an improvement in its assessment since February last year. All European countries except Sweden showed an improvement this wave.

Looking ahead, 25% global citizens surveyed said their local economy would be stronger six months from now.

The natives of Brazil are the quite optimistic about about the state of their economy in the next six months, followed by Saudi Arabia, India, Argentina and China.

The survey was conducted in December among 18,768 people including more than 1,000 Indian natives in 24 countries.