Consumer Confidence Index goes up: survey

The Overall Consumer Confidence Index of Pakistanis in the fourth quarter of the current year has gone up by three points compared to the same period last year. The survey, conducted by market research company Ipsos, shows that an upward trend can be seen in Pakistanis’ optimism about the country’s direction. Moreover, male members of the society, the middle-aged and rural dwellers are more optimistic than others. However, Pakistanis’ perception of the country’s direction being wrong has not always been the case, as in the election year 2018, 74pc of the population thought of the country heading in the right direction. Data shows that inflation, unemployment and rising poverty still haunted majority of the public. There is a sharp increase in the perception of inflation as the most worrying issue, however concern regarding floods significantly dropped in the last one quarter. The data shows that inflation and unemployment have always been the biggest concerns for Pakistanis in the last decade, however, the magnitude of concern was much lower before 2019.