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PDF - Urban Consumer Confidence Survey ()
Date : Oct 07, 2026
Urban Consumer Confidence Survey

Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of September 2026 round of its bi-monthly urban consumer confidence survey (UCCS)1. The survey collects current perceptions (vis-à-vis a year ago) and one year ahead expectations of households on general economic situation, employment scenario, overall price situation, own income and spending. The survey was conducted during September 10-20, 2026, covering 6,054 respondents across 19 major cities.

Highlights:

  1. Households’ confidence for the current period moved marginally with the Current Situation Index (CSI)2 at 87.9 from 88.3 in the previous round (Chart 1).

  2. Consumer optimism for the year ahead remained in positive terrain, albeit with slight moderation in the Future Expectations Index (FEI) (Chart 1).

  3. The consumer sentiments are optimistic on income and spending amid some concerns regarding economic situation, employment and prices going forward (Tables 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6).

Chart 1: Urban Consumer Confidence Indices

Note: Please see the excel file for time series data3

Summary based on Net Responses

Table 1: Perceptions and Expectations on the General Economic Situation
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Improved Remained Same Worsened Net Response Will Improve Will Remain Same Will Worsen Net Response
Sep-25 37.0 22.1 40.9 -3.9 57.9 16.8 25.3 32.6
Nov-25 37.2 23.1 39.7 -2.5 58.5 15.8 25.7 32.9
Jan-26 36.8 23.0 40.2 -3.5 56.6 16.2 27.2 29.3
Mar-26 34.5 22.5 43.0 -8.6 53.8 15.6 30.7 23.1
May-26 31.2 21.0 47.7 -16.5 52.3 14.9 32.8 19.5
Jul-26 27.1 22.3 50.5 -23.4 47.4 16.4 36.3 11.1
Sep-26 25.3 20.2 54.5 -29.3 46.1 15.6 38.3 7.8

Table 2: Perceptions and Expectations on Employment
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Improved Remained Same Worsened Net Response Will Improve Will Remain Same Will Worsen Net Response
Sep-25 35.3 23.2 41.5 -6.2 56.6 18.3 25.1 31.5
Nov-25 35.5 22.7 41.8 -6.3 57.1 17.4 25.5 31.6
Jan-26 35.8 22.1 42.1 -6.3 58.2 16.7 25.2 33.0
Mar-26 34.3 22.3 43.4 -9.1 54.1 16.9 29.0 25.2
May-26 31.1 23.5 45.5 -14.4 52.6 16.6 30.8 21.8
Jul-26 28.0 22.1 49.9 -21.9 48.9 17.3 33.8 15.1
Sep-26 27.9 22.7 49.5 -21.6 47.3 17.2 35.5 11.7

Table 3: Perceptions and Expectations on Price Level
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Increased Remained Same Decreased Net Response Will Increase Will Remain Same Will Decrease Net Response
Sep-25 89.7 7.9 2.4 -87.3 81.0 9.1 9.9 -71.1
Nov-25 83.9 11.0 5.1 -78.9 78.3 12.2 9.5 -68.8
Jan-26 86.3 8.6 5.1 -81.2 82.4 10.4 7.2 -75.2
Mar-26 89.1 6.9 4.0 -85.2 83.2 10.2 6.6 -76.7
May-26 91.6 7.5 0.9 -90.7 80.5 10.5 9.0 -71.5
Jul-26 93.3 6.1 0.6 -92.7 82.5 10.0 7.5 -74.9
Sep-26 95.0 4.6 0.4 -94.6 84.3 8.3 7.3 -77.0

Table 4: Perceptions and Expectations on Rate of Change in Price Level (Inflation)*
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Increased Remained Same Decreased Net Response Will Increase Will Remain Same Will Decrease Net Response
Sep-25 77.8 14.7 7.6 -70.2 78.0 13.0 9.1 -68.9
Nov-25 76.9 14.4 8.7 -68.2 75.9 16.2 7.8 -68.1
Jan-26 77.6 15.6 6.8 -70.9 77.6 16.6 5.9 -71.7
Mar-26 78.0 16.1 5.9 -72.2 79.6 15.5 4.9 -74.8
May-26 81.9 13.3 4.8 -77.1 78.6 15.9 5.5 -73.1
Jul-26 81.2 14.6 4.3 -76.9 79.2 15.4 5.4 -73.8
Sep-26 86.0 10.7 3.4 -82.6 82.0 13.5 4.5 -77.4
*Applicable only for those respondents who felt price has increased/price will increase.

Table 5: Perceptions and Expectations on Income
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Increased Remained Same Decreased Net Response Will Increase Will Remain Same Will Decrease Net Response
Sep-25 27.0 49.2 23.8 3.2 59.0 35.0 6.0 53.0
Nov-25 26.0 51.5 22.5 3.5 59.1 34.8 6.0 53.1
Jan-26 26.3 50.7 23.0 3.3 57.0 36.1 6.9 50.1
Mar-26 25.1 52.8 22.1 3.0 55.6 37.1 7.2 48.4
May-26 24.1 52.8 23.1 0.9 54.9 37.3 7.8 47.1
Jul-26 25.0 51.9 23.1 1.9 53.6 38.6 7.8 45.8
Sep-26 26.1 51.7 22.2 3.9 54.3 37.3 8.5 45.8

Table 6: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Improved Remained Same Worsened Net Response Will Improve Will Remain Same Will Worsen Net Response
Sep-25 81.4 15.7 2.9 78.5 82.1 15.0 2.9 79.1
Nov-25 78.7 18.6 2.6 76.1 82.2 15.1 2.8 79.3
Jan-26 79.7 18.6 1.7 78.0 82.3 15.4 2.3 80.0
Mar-26 80.2 18.1 1.8 78.4 82.8 15.7 1.6 81.2
May-26 77.2 19.5 3.3 74.0 79.9 16.8 3.3 76.6
Jul-26 80.0 17.3 2.7 77.3 82.4 14.9 2.7 79.7
Sep-26 83.7 13.8 2.6 81.1 82.3 14.5 3.2 79.2

Table 7: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending- Essential Items
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Improved Remained Same Worsened Net Response Will Improve Will Remain Same Will Worsen Net Response
Sep-25 88.6 9.5 1.9 86.7 87.3 11.0 1.7 85.6
Nov-25 85.2 13.1 1.7 83.5 85.5 11.9 2.6 83.0
Jan-26 86.6 12.2 1.2 85.4 86.2 11.4 2.4 83.8
Mar-26 86.9 11.8 1.3 85.7 86.8 11.5 1.7 85.0
May-26 86.8 11.3 1.9 84.9 85.9 11.4 2.7 83.2
Jul-26 88.3 10.0 1.7 86.7 87.9 10.0 2.1 85.8
Sep-26 90.1 8.2 1.7 88.4 87.8 10.1 2.2 85.6

Table 8: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending- Non-Essential Items
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round Current Perception One year ahead Expectation
Improved Remained Same Worsened Net Response Will Improve Will Remain Same Will Worsen Net Response
Sep-25 35.5 30.4 34.1 1.4 39.8 35.8 24.5 15.3
Nov-25 30.4 40.2 29.4 1.0 40.8 36.9 22.3 18.5
Jan-26 30.7 39.2 30.0 0.7 40.4 36.6 23.0 17.4
Mar-26 29.8 41.2 29.0 0.8 42.4 36.3 21.3 21.1
May-26 30.4 38.5 31.1 -0.8 39.8 36.2 24.0 15.9
Jul-26 32.6 38.2 29.3 3.3 41.2 35.9 22.9 18.3
Sep-26 34.6 35.4 30.0 4.6 42.2 34.0 23.8 18.4

1 The survey results reflect the respondents’ views, which are not necessarily shared by the Reserve Bank. Results of the previous survey round were released on the Bank’s website on August 05, 2026.

2 CSI and FEI are compiled on the basis of net responses on the economic situation, income, spending, employment and the price level for the current period (as compared with one year ago) and a year ahead, respectively. CSI and FEI = 100 + Average of Net Responses of the above parameters.

3 Unit-level data for previous rounds of the survey are available on the Bank’s ‘Database on Indian Economy’ (DBIE) portal (weblink: https://data.rbi.org.in/DBIE/#/dbie/home) under the head ‘Unit-level Data’.

4 ‘Net response’ is the difference between the percentage of respondents reporting optimism and those reporting pessimisms. It ranges between -100 and 100. Any value greater than zero indicates expansion/ optimism and values less than zero indicate contraction/ pessimism.