The Institute for Health Policy (IHP) today released the August 2024 update of its Consumer Confidence Indices, generated from its Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey (SLOTS).

All three of IHP’s Consumer Confidence indices dropped marginally in August 2024 compared to the previous month. The Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS), the broadest measure of public views on personal economic status and the national economy, decreased by 3 points to 30. The Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE), which tracks future perceptions, fell by 4 points to 31, and the Index of Current Conditions (ICC), a measure of perceptions of current conditions, dropped 3 points to 28. The decrease is primarily due to growing pessimism about the country's prospects over the next five years. 

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

The CCI estimates are based on 19,233 interviews conducted between Oct. 21, 2021–Sep. 7, 2024, including 1,150 interviews conducted in August 2024, with sample sizes varying between indices depending on response rates. All estimates are adjusted to be representative of the national population, including gender, age, ethnicity, and income level.

The SLOTS platform tracks public opinion and wellbeing daily using a large national panel recruited by face-to-face interviews and other randomly dialled respondents, with numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications that use the data. Inquiries to commission the platform to track specific issues are welcome and should be directed to info ‘at’ ihp.lk.

About IHP

IHP is solely responsible for commissioning and designing the survey, and it takes full responsibility for it. IHP is an independent, non-partisan research institution based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The SLOTS lead investigator is Dr Ravi Rannan-Eliya of IHP, who was trained in public opinion polling at Harvard University, and who has conducted many opinion surveys over three decades, both in and outside Sri Lanka.

Methodology

SLOTS combines data from a national sample of adults (ages 18 and over) reached by random digit dialling of mobile numbers, and others coming from a national panel of respondents who were previously recruited through random selection. All consumer confidence index estimates are weighted to be representative of the national population, including characteristics such as age, gender, province, sector, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and education.

Funding

IHP conducts the SLOTS survey to track changes in health and social conditions, and public opinion in the country. IHP is solely responsible for conceiving, commissioning and designing the survey, and it takes full responsibility for it. Interviews are done daily by phone by IHP employees, with respondents recruited by a national field survey or by randomly dialling phone numbers. SLOTS fieldwork since 2021 has been supported by a range of funders, who play no role in question design, data analysis, or reporting. Past funders have included the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, Asia Foundation, European Commission, UK National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Foundation Open Society Institute, and others. Current fieldwork is supported by funding from the Velux Stiftung foundation, New York University Abu Dhabi, USAID, and the IHP Public Interest Research Fund. The survey findings and IHP reporting do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of past and present funders. Interested parties can contact IHP for more detailed data and results.