More than a third of urban Indians claim their disposable income has decreased in the last 12 months

New data from YouGov’s latest report Financial Outlook 2023: Navigating the Storm, explores how disposable income has changed over the last 12 months and the outlook for the year ahead. Across the 18 markets, Great Britain had the largest decline in their disposable income with almost two-thirds (64%) saying their disposable income has decreased over the past 12 months, followed by Italy and Poland (both 57%).

Markets reporting a more even financial existence where disposable income has remained the same during this time include Hong Kong (41%), Spain (36%) and Germany (34%), whereas markets where the increase in disposable income reaches 20% or more include India (23%) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (20%), with Australia and Indonesia closely following (19%and 18%respectively).

The report uncovers who has been most affected by these ongoing crises, changes to consumer financial priorities, and how financial institutions can support the changing needs of different consumers.

Looking ahead in the future, 45% respondents globally expect their disposable income to decrease in the next 12 months and only 17% expect it to increase.

In India, more consumers report a decrease than increase in their disposable income in the past 12 months. Having said that there is a less pessimistic view on future disposable income. Fewer expect a fall in disposable income in the next 12 months as compared to the past (31%), more expect an increase (26%), and just as many who said this in the past expect it to remain the same in the future (29%).

The report additionally highlights what people in India are doing with their money to weather the storm. Putting money in their savings (33%), paying for health insurance (26%) and investments in stocks and shares (21%) were the top three financial activities done in the past 12 months.

Saving continues to be high on the future agenda with 36% urban Indians saying they intend to regularly put money into their savings in the next 12 months. Paying for health insurance (28%), making investments into stocks and shares (24%), regularly paying for pension or retirement, and paying for life or critical illness insurance (16% each) are some of the other activities urban Indians may take up in the future.

While consumers are taking some steps, they may need help to manage their money. Nearly two in five urban Indians feel any help in learning how to manage their money will be useful (38%). A third think an understanding of how to use investments to grow their money or help in planning future life events (32% both) will be of assistance.

Help with setting a budget and tracking expenses (27%), assessing finances (25%), managing debt (24%) and planning for retirement (23%) are some of the other areas where urban Indians could benefit from taking some help. Only 15% said they do not need any help with managing their finances.

For more insights and analysis, download the full Financial Outlook 2023: Navigating the storm whitepaper here.

Methodology:

The insights in this report are drawn from a recent YouGov global survey on the future financial outlook, specifically, exploring the global outlook for household living standards, changes in disposable income, how consumers are dealing with and managing their finances as a result of the changes and how financial institutions can help and support.

Covering 18 global markets of more than 19,700 respondents, our survey results were further bolstered by connecting respondent level data to YouGov’s proprietary syndicated data solutions, Profiles, allowing us to merge our respondents and their answers to the 100,000s consumer attributes that we collect on an ongoing basis for audience segmentation and profiling. Our survey was fielded the week of 11th – 25th October 2022.

The YouGov panel provides a naturally accurate and representative view of the population. Data is adjusted using a mild weighting team using interlocking demographic characteristics—methodology considered advanced in the market research space.

Data for India was based on a nationally representative sample (aged 18+) of 1,016 respondents.