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Date : Apr 08, 2026

Urban Consumer Confidence Survey

Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of March 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 February 25 to March 10, 2026, covering 6069 respondents across 19 major cities.

Highlights:

Consumer confidence for the current period deteriorated in the pessimistic zone with the Current Situation Index (CSI)² at 95.7 vis-à-vis 98.1 in the previous round (Chart 1).
Confidence for the year ahead, though optimistic, also saw a decline from the previous round. The Future Expectations Index (FEI) dropped by 3.2 points to 120.2 (Chart 1).
Households’ current perception on economic situation ebbed for the second consecutive round, registering a decrease of 5.1 points from the previous round. The outlook also declined by 6.2 points, though remained in the optimistic zone (Table 1).
The current perception and year-ahead expectation of households on employment situation have worsened by 2.8 and 7.8 points, respectively (Table 2).
Households’ sentiments regarding price and inflation have deteriorated for both time horizons (Tables 3 and 4).

Chart 1: Urban Consumer Confidence Indices

Note: Please see the excel file for time series data³

Table 1: Perceptions and Expectations on the General Economic Situation
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Improved	Remained Same	Worsened	Net Response	Will Improve	Will Remain Same	Will Worsen	Net Response
Mar-25	34.7	24.7	40.6	-5.9	56.6	14.9	28.5	28.0
May-25	35.7	22.4	41.9	-6.2	57.9	13.4	28.7	29.2
Jul-25	34.2	27.5	38.3	-4.2	55.7	20.9	23.4	32.3
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

Table 2: Perceptions and Expectations on Employment
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Improved	Remained Same	Worsened	Net Response	Will Improve	Will Remain Same	Will Worsen	Net Response
Mar-25	35.5	23.0	41.5	-6.1	56.4	16.5	27.1	29.3
May-25	36.2	21.8	42.1	-5.9	56.9	16.1	27.0	29.8
Jul-25	32.6	28.2	39.2	-6.7	53.6	23.8	22.6	31.0
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

Table 3: Perceptions and Expectations on Price Level
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	91.0	7.8	1.3	-89.7	82.2	9.4	8.4	-73.8
May-25	90.9	6.6	2.5	-88.5	82.5	8.1	9.4	-73.1
Jul-25	90.3	6.4	3.3	-87.0	81.6	9.3	9.1	-72.4
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

Table 4: Perceptions and Expectations on Rate of Change in Price Level (Inflation)*
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	79.4	14.0	6.7	-72.7	78.5	15.0	6.5	-72.0
May-25	78.0	14.8	7.2	-70.7	78.1	14.7	7.2	-70.8
Jul-25	78.7	12.5	8.7	-70.0	79.7	10.9	9.4	-70.3
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
*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
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	23.8	53.0	23.3	0.5	57.5	36.0	6.5	51.0
May-25	24.1	52.2	23.7	0.4	58.0	36.3	5.7	52.3
Jul-25	22.7	56.7	20.6	2.1	57.0	38.6	4.4	52.6
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

Table 6: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	80.1	18.8	1.2	78.9	79.6	18.0	2.4	77.2
May-25	78.7	19.9	1.4	77.3	81.1	16.4	2.5	78.6
Jul-25	80.2	17.7	2.2	78.0	81.0	18.0	1.0	80.0
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

Table 7: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending- Essential Items
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	87.4	12.0	0.6	86.9	86.2	12.1	1.8	84.4
May-25	87.5	11.0	1.4	86.1	86.9	11.3	1.8	85.1
Jul-25	87.5	11.5	1.0	86.5	87.1	12.0	0.9	86.2
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

Table 8: Perceptions and Expectations on Spending- Non-Essential Items
(Percentage responses)
Survey Round	Current Perception				One year ahead Expectation
Survey Round	Increased	Remained Same	Decreased	Net Response	Will Increase	Will Remain Same	Will Decrease	Net Response
Mar-25	28.5	40.9	30.7	-2.2	37.7	37.7	24.6	13.1
May-25	27.8	41.1	31.2	-3.4	38.2	37.3	24.5	13.8
Jul-25	37.6	25.1	37.3	0.4	43.6	27.7	28.7	15.0
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

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 February 06, 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.