Sri Lanka Consumer confidence remains deeply pessimistic last month amidst wide spreading across all segments and public was resigned to likelihood that conditions will worsen in coming months and years, Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS) opined.
The country’s economy, which faced extreme headwinds and heightened uncertainties during the first half of 2022, has shown signs of stability in the second half of the year this far.
This achievement was possible due to the myriad of multifaceted policy interventions undertaken to steer the economy to transition towards a path of stable and sustainable growth over the medium term.
Although the economy was on a recovery path subsequent to the abating of the COVID-19 pandemic, its progress was muted by the culmination of the entrenched twin deficits in the government budget and external current account.
As per the Institute for Health Policy (IHP) October 2022 update, consumer confidence remains deeply pessimistic about the economic condition, job availability, family income and spending..
It said despite fluctuations during the month, all three of IHP’s consumer confidence indices realized minimal net changes by end-October 2022.
The Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), the broadest measure of the public’s view on their personal economic status and the national economy and which ranges from zero to a potential maximum 100, increased one point to nine points.
The Index of Consumer Expectation (ICE), a measure of perceptions about the future, increased one point to 11 points.
The Index of Consumer Conditions (ICC), a measure of perceptions about current conditions remained unchanged at six points.
IHP Executive Director Dr. Rannan-Eliya said that recent surveys in other countries indicate that consumer confidence in Sri Lanka is the worst in the Asia Pacific region.
Taking the Index of Consumer Sentiment as comparison, levels in September ranged from 31 to 71 in other Asian economies, with Japan being the worst with a level of 31, still substantially higher than in Sri Lanka (8).
SLOTS combines data from a national sample of adults (ages 18 and over) reached by random digit dialling of mobile numbers and others coming from a national panel of respondents who were previously recruited through random selection.
The SLOTS is made possible by funding support from the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, The Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka and others, but the sponsors play no role in the study design, analysis, or interpretation of findings. Interested parties can contact IHP for more detailed data and results.
IHP is an independent, non-partisan research centre based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The SLOTS lead investigator is Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya of IHP, who has trained in public opinion polling at Harvard University and has conducted numerous surveys over three decades.
