Database on Indian EconomyRBI's Data Warehouse

Household Surveys

Inflation Expectations Survey of Household (IESH)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been conducting the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) since 2005 with the objective to capture households' expectations of change in price level as well as inflation rate for three months and one year ahead period, using qualitative and quantitative responses.
  • Over time, coverage of the survey has been extended and currently, the survey is conducted in 19 cities covering 6,100 households.

  • The survey was conducted on quarterly basis (viz., Mar, Jun, Sep and Dec) till March 2014. Two additional rounds of the survey in May and November were started from May 2014 to align with the bi-monthly monetary policy and the results of these additional rounds are being published since November 2016, after ensuring consistency.

  • Till June 2018 round, quota sampling was used wherein respondents were chosen from 7 categories, viz., financial sector employees (10%), other employees (15%), self-employed (20%), housewives (30%), retired persons (10%), daily workers (10%), others (5%).

  • Since the September 2018 round, a two-stage probability sampling design is being used, wherein at the first stage in a city, polling booths are selected by systematic random sampling after arranging all polling booths according to their constituencies to ensure wide geographical coverage. In the second stage, from each selected polling booth area, 15 households are selected following the right-hand rule, skipping 10 houses

Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been conducting the Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) since 2010 with the objective to capture households' current perception (i.e., the current situation as compared with a year ago) and future expectations (i.e., expectations for a year ahead), with respect to five parameters - economic condition, employment scenario, general price levels, income and spending of the households.
  • Over time, coverage of the survey has been extended and currently, the survey is conducted in 19 cities covering 6,100 households

  • The survey was conducted on a quarterly basis (viz., Mar, Jun, Sep and Dec) till March 2014. Two additional rounds of the survey in May and November were started from May 2014 to align with the bi-monthly monetary policy and the results of these additional rounds are being published since November 2016, after ensuring consistency.

  • A two-stage probability sampling design is used, wherein at the first stage in a city, the polling booths are selected by systematic random sampling after arranging all polling booths according to their constituencies to ensure wide geographical coverage. In the second stage, from each selected polling booth area, 15 respondents are selected following the right-hand rule, skipping 10 houses.