By Nishel Fernando
The consumer confidence in Sri Lanka saw a slight improvement in February. 

According to the Institute for Health Policy (IHP), this is driven by a recovery of the public expectations of the country’s situation in the next 12 months, coupled with the recovery of the buying conditions.

In February, all three of the IHP’s Consumer Confidence indices, which are generated from its Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS), improved.
The Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), the broadest measure of the public’s view of their personal economic status and national economy, gained six points to 22 points. The Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE), which tracks future perceptions, increased seven points to 28 points. The Index of Current Conditions (ICC), a measure of perceptions of the current conditions, also increased four points to 13 points.

Despite the improvement, the IHP noted that the consumer confidence remains at net pessimistic levels.

“All the IHP SLOTS consumer confidence indices range from zero to a potential maximum of 100, with levels below 50 indicating net pessimism,” it added.

Meanwhile, the IHP highlighted that those indices were boosted by a recovery in public expectations of the country’s situation in the next 12 months and recovery of buying conditions. The public expectations of the country’s situation in the next 12 months rose by a significant 14 points to 26 points, while the current buying conditions recovered by seven points to 13 points in the month.

The public expectations of the country’s long-term prospects (over the next five years) improved by five points to 30 points. 

The Personal Financial Situation remained almost unchanged in the month, with a marginal gain of one point to 14 points, while the public expectations of personal financial situation in the next 12 months improved by three points to 29 points. 

The CCI estimates are based on 15,469 interviews, conducted between October 21, 2021 and March 7, 2024, including 579 interviews conducted in February 2024, with the sample sizes varying between the indices, depending on the response rates. All estimates are adjusted to be representative of the national population, including gender, age, ethnicity and income level.

The survey was previously funded by the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, Asia Foundation in Sri Lanka and others. The current fieldwork is financed by the IHP Public Interest Research Fund and others, according to the IHP.