71% Indian says current Indian economy is good: Ipsos study

India's Economic Confidence dipped by two points in the month of July compared to the previous month, however it still stands as the 3rd most economically confident country, according to a major analysis of world public opinion released today by Ipsos” one of the world's largest market and opinion research companies.

The report, titled "Ipsos Global @dvisory: The Economic Pulse of the World" is based on 18,607 recent interviews in 24 countries around the world. The report examines citizens' assessment of current state of their country's economy for a total global perspective.

"While India still has confidence in its macro-economic future, there is some level of local stress evident due to high inflation, periodic hikes in the interest rates and their impact on the Market, increasing the cost of living for a family in India," said Sonia Pall, CEO, Ipsos in India.

The average global economic assessment of national economies surveyed in 24 countries is down one point since last round with 40% now reporting current economic conditions in their country are "good".

The world's winning and losing teams are comprised of the same players month after month. Saudi Arabia continues to lead with a whopping nine in ten (89%) rating their national economy as "good"; Sweden (76%), India (71%) and Canada (69%) follow at some distance. These figures remain unchanged from last wave; only India showed a decline of two points.

Hungary (6%) and Spain (6%) scrape the bottom of the global barrel, though the former shows a one-point improvement while the latter remains unchanged. Japan (8%), Italy (10%), France (12%) and Great Britain (13%) comprise the rest of the lowest tier. Italy (-4), Great Britain (-2) and Japan (-1) are all witnessing declines this wave while France is up one point.

The United States (19%) shows a four-point decline this month suggesting last month's six-point improvement was a momentary surge rather than a sign of lasting growth.

The global average of local economic assessment remains the same among the 24 countries. Three in ten (30%) global citizens say the state of the current economy in their local area is "good".

Saudi Arabia (63%) continues to be the global leader in local economic confidence followed by citizens of Sweden (52%), Canada (51%), India (50%), and China (49%). Japan (6%), Spain (8%), Hungary (12%) and France (16%) are at the bottom.

The biggest improvements on this measure are witnessed in South Africa (+6 points to 34%), Sweden (+5 points to 52%) and Poland (+4 points to 21%).

The biggest declines are in Indonesia (-6 points to 27%), Australia (-4 points to 46%) and South Korea (-3 points to 18%).

When asked to look ahead six months from now, one quarter (26%) say the local economy will be stronger. This line has been trending downwards since early 2010 with only two exceptions (29% in November "10 and 28% in February "10). Optimism for future growth in local areas, it seems, may be out of reach to global citizens.

Citizens provide their assessments on the extent to which they think their local economy will be "stronger", ""weaker" or "about the same". Yet again, Brazilians have the highest proportion of people (64%) indicating the local economy will likely be stronger six months from now with Saudi Arabia (60%) and India (52%) next in line. However, Brazil also shows the largest decline this wave (-7).

France (5%), Hungary (8%), Japan (9%) and South Korea (12%) have the lowest proportion of people indicating the local economy will likely be stronger.

While no countries show improvements over three points in this measure, several countries show significant declines: Brazil (-7 points to 64%), South Korea (-5 points to 12%) and China (-5 points to 39%).

Compared to June "10, economic sentiments of BRIC countries have declined significantly, while perception of US citizen has not moved up at all and European countries like France and Germany are improving marginally.

"Indian citizens seem to be driven more by the developments in USA which has not been showing a growth than the European countries, some of whom are recovering well in terms of growth sentiment. This orientation seems to be influencing their perception about the future of the Indian local economy as well." said Pall.

"The slightly softer outlook for next 6 months compared to June '10 by Indian citizens is primarily due to high inflation and the frequent scams involving large companies and the Government. In order to maintain its attractiveness as a growth market, India needs some positive developments in the next six months to strengthen the future economic confidence," added Pall.