• Although overall consumer sentiment remains pessimistic, the biggest gains were in future expectations suggesting the IMF funding agreement has lifted perceptions

The Institute for Health Policy (IHP) released today the March 2023 update of its Consumer Confidence Indices, which are generated from its Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS).

There was broad improvement in consumer sentiment in March, during which the IMF approved new funding for Sri Lanka according to consumer confidence indices generated from SLOTS of IHP.

This led to all three of IHP’s Consumer confidence indices significantly improving, although all remain at pessimistic levels.

The Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), the broadest measure of the public’s view on their personal economic status and the national economy increased four points to 16 points. The ICS ranges from zero to a potential maximum 100, with levels below 50 indicating net pessimism.

The Index of Consumer Expectation (ICE), a measure of perceptions about the future, improved five points to 22 points, but the Index of Consumer Conditions (ICC), a measure of perceptions about current conditions increased only two points. In contrast, views about current buying conditions remains unchanged in March, which were at very low levels (below 10 points) indicating consumer demand for large purchases will  remain very low, IHP said.

IHP is an independent, non-partisan research centre based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The SLOTS Lead Investigator is Dr. Ravi Rannan-Eliya of IHP, who has trained in public opinion polling at Harvard University and has conducted numerous surveys over three decades.

Manufacturing, services sectors rebound in March as per Purchasing Managers’ Indices