India tops global consumer confidence survey

Indian consumers are the most confident globally while investors in the country feel safeguarded by the country's relatively `not-so-open' financial markets, a study by market researcher A C Nielsen shows.

India tops the `Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index' with 114 points. Indians are also the most optimistic globally with 51 per cent of them asserting that their country will be out of the economic rut in the next 12 months.

''Despite the global economic recession, Indians seem to be quite confident of the economy picking up in the near future," according to the study that polled over 26,000 consumers across the world.

"They believe that the global recession will have limited impact on India where the domestic market is believed to be large enough to support continued growth."

Also, they expect most multinationals to invest in India, which is one of the few growth markets in the world with the potential to tide over the economic crisis in 2009.

Sixteen per cent of Indians polled said they considered job prospects in the country "excellent" while 59 per cent felt job prospects were "good". About 75 per cent of the respondents were upbeat on local job prospects in 2009.

The Indian economy, even at an adjusted average growth rate of six to seven per cent, still makes for a good job market, they feel.

Nearly 58 per cent of Indians still believe in saving their extra money into savings while 42 per cent Indians invest in shares of stock or mutual funds – down six percentage points from the previous survey – but still at number four globally.

On the spending side, new clothes (32 per cent) top their list, followed by new technology products (28 per cent), home improvements/decorating (27 per cent), out-of-home entertainment (20 per cent), and retirement fund (20 per cent - seventh highest globally).

Among major economic concerns at a personal level, one in five is concerned about job security and increasing food prices, while one in 10 is affected by children's welfare, increasing utility and fuel bills, and health while 13 out of 100 are concerned about parents' welfare and happiness – the sixth highest in the world. Indians also are more concerned about global warming (9 per cent), where India figured on the top 10 list globally.

While emerging economies in general and BRIC countries in particular score high in consumer confidence, India top the survey as the most optimistic. Brazil and China have moved up the ranking while Russia ranked the fifth most optimistic among the global top 10 most optimistic countries.

The A C Neilson biannual survey found Indians "the most optimistic lot globally who think that their country will be out of the economic recession in the next twelve months."

The latest survey reveals that consumer confidence the world over has dropped from its peak of 99 in 2006 to 84 now amidst the global financial market crisis.

Also, in a survey of 52 markets, 43 (about 82 per cent) have recorded a decline in the consumer confidence index from the first half of 2008.

The Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index represents a global online population of about 1 billion consumers.

Three questions were used to calculate the consumer confidence index. They relate to job prospects in the next 12 months; the state of the respondent's personal finances in the next 12 months; and, based on the cost of things and the respondent's personal finances, irrespective of his needs.

The scale of answers to all three questions are: Excellent, Good, Not so good and Bad. To calculate the index, each response was given values: Excellent (200), Good (133.3), Not so good (66.6) and Bad (0). Using these values, the average of the three questions was taken for each respondent. The index for each country was calculated by taking the index average for each respondent in that country. An index value of 100 corresponds to an average halfway between ''Good'' and ''Not so good'', the report said.