Indian consumer sentiment dips to a four-month low, shows data

The survey asks households about their current well-being and their expectations from the future

Indian consumers are less bullish than before.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Index of Consumer Sentiments dipped in February to its lowest level since October 2023. The decline was observed in occupation groups, including farmers and salaried employees. Those involved in business, as well as small traders and wage labourers, were the relative outperformers.

The survey asks households about their current well-being and their expectations for the future. It also enquires about perceptions of the country as a whole, in addition to their propensity to spend on consumer goods.

The index reflects the long-term trend in consumer sentiments based on the survey. The analysis here considered key categories, excluding retired or aged persons and non-working households.

Salaried employees saw a 1.26 per cent decline in consumer sentiment in February compared to the previous month, as measured by the index. The decline was 6.32 per cent for farmers.

Businesspeople saw consumer sentiment improve by 3.54 per cent, while small traders and wage labourers saw a marginal improvement of 0.54 per cent.

Salaried employees and small traders, along with wage labourers, are the two categories whose sentiment appears to be back to pre-pandemic levels.

Others are yet to return to where they were in February 2020, a month before the government imposed a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of Covid.

Some of this may be linked to changes in their perceptions about current economic conditions. Economic conditions improved by 2.5 per cent above 2020 levels for salaried groups and declined the least (down 3.3 per cent) for small traders and wage labourers.

Respondents from the business group showed the largest decline compared to the other groups, a fall of 5.5 per cent, which was down 5.4 per cent for farmers.