Perception of India’s Economy Has Worsened Since 2014: RBI Survey

The RBI conducted a survey in six metropolitan cities to gauge people’s perceptions on jobs and economic growth.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

(Photo: IANS)

The past four years of the Modi government have certainly had a massive impact on the Indian economy.

In an attempt to analyse how the masses view the current state of the economy, as well as to gauge their expectations from the same, Mint referred to a consumer confidence survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India.

According to the survey, which was conducted among six metropolitan cities, namely, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, 48 percent of those surveyed in May 2018 said that they believed the general economic situation in India has worsened from a year ago, while 31.9 percent said their economic situation had improved.

As a result, this would sum up to a net response of -16.1 percent, which is much more than June 2014, when the net response was -14.4, the report adds. 

Fading Expectations

According to the survey, which recorded the data collected over May 2018, the percentage of respondents who believed that the economic situation in India would get better was 49.5 percent, while 27.8% of the same expected it to get worse.

Contrastingly, in the survey that was conducted in June 2014, about 56.7 percent of respondents thought that the economy would get better in a year’s time, while a mere 17.6% believed it would get worse.

Job Situation

In terms of people’s expectations about the availability of jobs in the current economy, 44.1 percent of respondents stated that they thought the employment rate had worsened, while 31.5 percent said it had improved.

However, 49.5 percent of those who were a part of the survey, said that they expected the situation to improve in the next year, while 25 percent said it might get worse.

Income

According to the survey, a similar trend of fading expectations regarding the rise of income levels in the next one year, has been wright among the respondents.

While about 50.8 percent of those surveyed in May 2018 expect their income to increase in the next year, it is still less compared to the 63.9 percent which had expected the same in June 2014.

Inflation Falls

In terms of inflation, the survey reflects the views of 78 percent of the respondents, who believe that inflation will increase in the next one year. However, this is better than 2014, when 84 percent of respondents had expected the same.

In the current survey, only 5.5 percent of respondents believe that inflation rates will fall.

(With inputs from Livemint)