India leads 29 nations on consumer sentiments amid strong economy, job growth

New Delhi: As the Indian economy shows a lot of resilience amid an uptick in job growth, consumer sentiments went up in India in May as the country continued to lead 29 countries with the highest national index score, a global survey showed on Tuesday, May 21.

According to the findings by the LSEG-Ipsos ‘Primary Consumer Sentiment Index’, India saw improvement in the overall sentiment, “with the upside of +0.8 percentage points”.

The country, currently in the middle of Lok Sabha elections, continues to hold onto the highest national index score (67.8 percentage points) across all 29 countries covered in the monthly survey by Ipsos, one of the largest market research and polling companies globally.

“India is the most buoyant market across all markets covered in the survey with a National Index score of 67.8 percentage points and we also see an upturn in consumer sentiment in May which augurs well for growth and attracting more FDI – as we see the sentiment for the economy and jobs is seeing a major boost,” the findings showed.

In an interview with NDTV, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that crores of new jobs have been created across sectors in the last 10 years.

Citing data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), PM Modi said that unemployment has halved.

“According to PLFS, more than 6 crore new jobs have been created in the six years. According to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), 6-7 lakh new jobs have been registered in the last 6 years,” he said.

The latest data from SKOCH Group, India’s leading think tank dealing with socio-economic issues, shows that five crore jobs were generated in the last 10 years. According to the survey, the Indian economy has been showing a lot of resilience and is largely defined by domestic consumption and has been on the radar of global companies for pumping in most investments, as the country is a “highly growth-oriented market”.

Among the 29 countries, India (67.8) Indonesia (63.2) and Mexico (61) are the only countries with a National Index score of 60 or higher.