Consumer confidence across the Asia Pacific region has dropped 7 points in the last 6 months. The Mastercard worldwide index of consumer confidence reveals that consumers in the region are pessimistic about the first six months of 2009.

India’s current index score is 63.9 showing that consumers in India, though optimistic, are less so than six months ago (82.1) and a year ago (86.6). The score, slightly better than its historical average of 62.3, is India's lowest score since 2004.

However, amongst the 14 countries surveyed by Mastercard, India along with China, Vietnam and Singapore have shown optimism in consumer confidence which will continue till early 2009. Of the three cities surveyed in India, Bangalore scored the highest thus giving a boost to the overall score. Delhi and Mumbai have both seen a drop in consumer confidence over the past 12 months.

Consumer sentiment in India has gone down on all five economic factors — employment, quality of life, regular income, stock market and the economy. Consumers are a lot less optimistic about quality of life (58.9 against 87.7 six months ago) and employment (50.4 against 75.1).

"With the European and the US economies in a deepening recession, the world is looking to Asia, particularly developing Asia, to provide the locomotive for global demand. In the past, the region's households were more known for their propensity to save. Today the question is, are they in a mood to spend, and can they replace the American consumer whose wealth and income are both under assault. The results of the survey show that consumer confidence in September 2008 is back to roughly its historic average," said Suman Bery, director-general, National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).

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