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'India 2nd most confident country'

Indians continue to be among the world's most confident people about their economy on account of moderating inflationary pressure and the easing of tight money policy stance of the Reserve Bank, says a report.

According to global research firm Ipsos, India has emerged as the second most economically confident nation for the second consecutive time.

India's economic confidence jumped by five points to 75 per cent in March compared to the previous month, to retain the second most economically confident nation title after Saudi Arabia which tops the table with 89 per cent.

China is the third most economically confident country, where 71 per cent are optimistic about their economy, followed by Sweden (70 per cent), Germany (68 per cent), Canada (64 per cent) and Australia (62 per cent).

"India has overtaken Japan to become the third-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (as per IMF report) and is heading for accelerated growth,following RBI cutting repo rate by 50 bps and inflation moderating to acceptable level," Ipsos India CEO Mick Gordon said.

"This should provide some confidence to the overall sentiments and help in stimulating investment. If the inflation momentum eases in near future, it will give RBI more room to cut rates further to boost investments and growth," he added.

More than half of Indian citizens (56 per cent) believe their economy, which impacts their personal finances, is good and 57 per cent people expect that the economy in their local area will be stronger in the next six months, the report said.

Gordon said global economic indicators are disturbing, as it is evident that the sources of external growth that the Indian economy has been relying upon in the last few years will be week. "In order to further strengthen domestic demand and improve investor confidence, government has to improve the conditions for private investment, address infrastructure bottlenecks, enhance governance and public service delivery," he added.

The report, which examined citizens' assessment of the current state of their country's economy, said the overall global average economic confidence remained swung up one point at 39 percent last month.

Looking ahead, 34 per cent global citizens surveyed said their local economy would be stronger six months from now. The natives of Brazil are the quite optimistic about about the state of their economy in the next six months, followed by Saudi Arabia and India.

The survey was conducted in March this year among nearly 19, 000 people in 24 countries.