Describing India's economy as stable, Global real-time payment processing firm MasterCard today said that consumers in the country were "extremely optimistic" in their outlook for the next six months.
The latest index on consumer confidence covering Asian markets released today said that India stayed stable, with consumers maintaining their extremely optimistic outlook.
It rated India as stable. Though the Index slipped by 2.9 points to 90.2 points, it was still above 90 points calculated for the extremely optimistic rating for India.
Consumer confidence in Myanmar and Vietnam was also extremely optimistic at 95.7 points and 94.2 points, respectively. The outlook for the two markets were boosted by big improvements in stock market sentiment which rose by 21.6 points and 17.3 points.
However, consumers in Asia Pacific are not optimistic about the immediate future.
Asia Pacific has fallen below the 60-point optimistic mark to neutral, with 12 of the 17 markets seeing a deterioration in confidence levels, it said. The index on the region was down by 6.4 points to 59.7, a first since 2012.
Stock market sentiment was the key driver of the decline followed by prospects for employment.
Between November and December 2015, 8,779 respondents, aged 18 to 64 in 17 Asia Pacific markets, were asked to give a six-month outlook on five economic factors including the economy, employment prospects, regular income prospects, the stock market and their quality of life.
The Index is calculated with zero as the most pessimistic, 100 as most optimistic and 50 as neutral.
"The decline of consumer confidence in Asia Pacific reflects the continued uncertainty in the global economic environment. In particular, recent stock market turbulence has significantly impacted consumer outlook," Eric Schneider, Region Head, Asia Pacific, MasterCard Advisors said.
"However, a number of emerging markets are bucking this trend, namely, Myanmar, Vietnam and India, which are all continuing to see strong economic growth", he added.
Asia Pacific's overall confidence has dampened and growth has slowed, its markets will still play a key role in driving global growth in 2016.
