India keeps confidence in stride

Country leads world in consumer confidence for third year in a row.

The ACNielsen Consumer Confidence Survey for the first half of 2006 shows India in the lead of both the 41-nation global survey as well as the 14-country Asia-Pacific study. This is the third time in a row that India is at the top of the Consumer Confidence Index.

While the global index has held at 98 points since the last round of the survey conducted in November-December 2005, India's score is 131, down one notch from 132 in the last survey. (See Unrelenting Optimism in The Strategist, being distributed with today's edition)

Conducted in May-June, the survey covered close to 22,000 people, including over 500 people from India.

For the first time, China and Vietnam were also included in the Asia-Pacific study, the results of which were made available exclusively to Business Standard.

The consumer confidence result for India is in stark contrast with that for the Asia Pacific, where the sentiment is turning negative "" the index for the region fell seven points, from 101 to 94.

The survey shows Indians remain confident of the job market and personal finance: 90 per cent rate employment prospects as excellent or good, compared with the regional and global averages of 47 and 53 per cent, respectively.

Indian consumers' perceptions of the state of their personal finances is also encouraging "" 86 per cent rate them as excellent or good, while the corresponding figure for the region is 45 per cent.

In the Asia Pacific, the least optimistic countries are Japan (79) and South Korea (54), which is also the most pessimistic nation globally. South Korea was the least optimistic country in the region in the last round, too.

That sentiment has worsened, with the index for the country falling 12 points in this round. New Zealand also registered a sharp drop in consumer confidence, with its index moving down nine points to 114.

The survey also polled consumers on their major concerns. Compared with previous surveys, Indians' concerns about health have dropped seven points to 26 per cent, although the economy remains a major worry for close to half of those polled.

Across Asia, 42 per cent of all respondents are concerned about the economy, compared with 41 per cent worried about job security and health.

Globally, 47 per cent respondents cited the economy as their biggest and second biggest concerns, while 37 per cent and 31 per cent named health and job security, respectively.