THE bi-monthly results released by the Reserve Bank of India of its Consumer Confidence Survey provides some indication of consumers’ perceptions on the current state of the economy as well as of future expectations. The latest round released on 8, December 2021, is based on the survey conducted during the period October 25 to November 3, 2021, covering 5310 households across 13 major states. The survey results provide two summary indicators namely, the current situation index (CSI) and future expectation index (FEI).

SOME of the worrying features of recent employment trends raise doubts about the discourse of post pandemic robust recovery advocated by the government and the political establishment. It is not at all surprising that the economy faced severe contraction during the pandemic and as situations ease off, the economy once again records positive growth in different sectors. In most of the sectors however as the first quarterly estimates suggest, the economy is still short of recovering the pre-pandemic levels of output or value addition.