
Consumer confidence remained stable says RBI
The Reserve Bank released the results of May 2025 round of its bi-monthly urban consumer confidence survey (UCCS) today. The survey collects current perceptions and one year ahead expectations of households on general economic situation, employment scenario, overall price situation, own income and spending across 19 major cities. The latest round of the survey was conducted during May 2-11, 2025, covering 6,090 respondents. The central bank noted that despite improvements in employment and price conditions, consumer confidence for the current period remained stable due to marginal decline in sentiments on the other survey parameters. The Current Situation Index (CSI) moderated by 0.1 points to 95.4 in May 2025
Consumer confidence for the year ahead improved further owing to elevated optimism in all survey parameters. Future Expectations Index (FEI) rose by 1 point to 123.4 in the latest survey round Pessimism about the current price level and inflation continued to ease for the second consecutive round. Households also expect a decline in both price and inflationary pressures over the coming year. Households remain firmly optimistic on future earnings even though their sentiment on current earnings remained around its March 2025 level.

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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Urban households remain pessimistic about present, but optimism about future rises: RBI survey
Urban Indian households remained pessimistic about their economic situation at present in May 2025, with the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Urban Consumer Confidence Survey, released Friday, showing that Current Situation Index (CSI) for these households inched down to 95.4 from 95.5 in March 2025. Rural households reported a similar decline, with their CSI edging down to 100.0 from 100.1. An index number of less than 100 is indicative of pessimism, while a 100-plus figure suggests optimism. While rural households' assessment of their current situation has been steadily improving since falling to 96.1 in July 2024, the CSI for urban households has been under 100 for more than six years. The findings of the two surveys are broadly in line with expectations, with a good monsoon and falling food inflation seen driving rural demand and consumption. However, even with headline retail inflation at a multi-year low of just 3.16 per cent in April 2025 and food inflation at 1.78 per cent, both urban and rural households were highly pessimistic when it came to their perception of current price levels and expectations one year from now. To be sure, their one-year-ahead expectations about prices were less pessimistic than what they thought about the present. Hopeful about the future Although the RBI surveys showed that while households are not impressed by their current situation, they are hopeful about the future, with those in both urban and rural areas indicating greater optimism about the year ahead. While urban households' Future Expectations Index (FEI) increased to a one-year high of 123.4 in May 2025, that of rural households printed at 126.2, the highest in the survey's short history which dates back to September 2023. The RBI has renamed its erstwhile Consumer Confidence Survey as Urban Consumer Confidence Survey from May 2025 onwards, while the Rural Consumer Confidence Survey was released for the first time in April 2025. The latest round of the two surveys was conducted during May 2-11, 2025, with 6,090 respondents in the urban survey and 8,969 in the rural one. In his statement while announcing the Monetary Policy Committee's decision on Friday, RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra had said 'rural demand remains steady, while urban demand is improving'. Prices apart, both urban and rural households were pessimistic in their perception of the current employment scenario, but fairly optimistic about the future. Cooling inflation expectations A separate RBI survey on households' inflation expectations showed that the perception of current inflation eased by by 10 basis points (bps) to 7.7 per cent in May 2025 from March 2025, with their one-year-ahead expectations down 20 bps at 9.5 per cent, according to 6,079 valid responses from 19 major cities. Meanwhile, the Rural Consumer Confidence Survey also measured inflation expectations in rural and semi-urban areas, finding that households' current perception of inflation was down 30 bps at 6.3 per cent in May 2025, while one-year-ahead expectations declined by 40 bps to 8.9 per cent. Inflation expectations are closely watched by policymakers as keeping them anchored is critical to ensuring price stability. The RBI's Household Inflation Expectations Survey is one of only two such surveys, with the other being Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad's Business Inflation Expectations Survey (BIES). As per the latest BIES, one-year-ahead inflation expectations of Indian businesses declined slightly by 5 bps from March 2025 to 4.12 per cent in April 2025. The BIES primarily considers companies from the manufacturing sector. Households' inflation expectations are usually higher than those of businesses as the former primarily focus on food and fuel prices, which tend to be volatile. Businesses, meanwhile, consider the price of a wide range of commodities that are inputs in their production process.


The Print
17 hours ago
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Sensex jumps over 700 points, Nifty reclaims 25,000-level as investors cheer RBI's jumbo rate cut
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The Print
17 hours ago
- The Print
No move on hiking foreign ownership limits in banks right now; need more banks in India: RBI
Malhotra, however, said that a growing economy like India needs more banks, but was quick to add that we need owners and managers, who are trustworthy. Speaking to reporters at the central bank headquarters here, Malhotra said the RBI will be undertaking an exercise to re-look at the ownership structure in banks and various issues like ownership structures and eligibility criteria. Mumbai, Jun 6 (PTI) Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Friday said there is no move to increase foreign ownership limits beyond 15 per cent in a single institution at present. 'We allow 15 per cent for non-residents, and it can go up above 15 per cent on a case-to-case basis. There is no change in this anytime soon or immediately,' Malhotra said. It can be noted that usually, the RBI allows a single foreign institution to hold 15 per cent in a lender and has made some exceptions like that of CSB Bank, where Canada-based investor Fairfax has been allowed to own 51 per cent and recently, it allowed Japan's SMBC to own 20 per cent of Yes Bank. Terming it a 'deeper question' which will take time to reach a conclusion, Malhotra hinted that the RBI may look at allowing higher foreign ownership of banks in the future. 'We have also said that we want to re-look at ownership structure and eligibility conditions under which non-residents, who are at 15 per cent, we are examining at present. It will not happen immediately, it will take time,' he said, stressing that whatever is best for the economy will be taken on board. 'Certainly, our economy is growing, we require more banks. Keeping that in mind, if there is a need for change in the ownership criteria, we will do it,' he added. Meanwhile, when asked if the RBI will go back on its November 2023 regulation on increasing the risk weights in unsecured lending because of the comfort on asset quality from credit cards and personal portfolios, Malhotra replied in the negative, saying there are no such plans. PTI AA BAL BAL This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.