Credit Suisse has released its emerging consumer survey for 2021. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Arnab Mitra, Head of India Consumer Securities Research at Credit Suisse said the key finding of the survey is that there is a significant increase in optimism compared to the 2018 survey. He also said that the level of optimism is the highest in the past 10 years.

“If you look at the emerging market consumer survey of Credit Suisse, the key finding is that there seems to be a significant increase in optimism compared to the 2018 survey which is the last one we did. Interestingly, the level of optimism is the highest in 10 years because this survey is something which we have done every year from 2010 onwards,” he said.

He also said that they are seeing an acceleration in consumption growth across categories in India.

“Most of the investors are focused on relative valuations and relative growth. There we have seen a lot of divergences, not just now, but even in the past. But we saw this very big change in the consumption basket during COVID where certain categories saw a huge pickup in growth and certain categories saw a big decline in growth. I think the focus right now is more on what is going to happen beyond the pandemic. These are sectors where people do look into the medium term and once vaccination goes through in the next 6 months and the second surge also comes off, the idea is that which companies kind of gain through the pandemic, which are structural trends and where are the headwinds there. So, the focus or the lens is a lot more relative within the sector given that generally, valuations are high across consumer space,” he said.

Mitra also said that he would bet on healthcare-oriented brands, loose to branded food conversion, and anything to do with the shift into online. He believes that these are the categories that would grow faster.

He also expects a cyclical recovery in sectors such as personal care.

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(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)