New York – Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, today announced the launch of the Thomson Reuters/Ipsos Monthly Global Primary Consumer Sentiment Index (PCSI). The Thomson Reuters/Ipsos PCSI, measures 11 key indicators of consumer confidence and outlook as perceived by consumers in 24 countries. In depth analysis will be available for 12 countries including, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, China, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, and Australia. 

“We are delighted to be working with Ipsos to provide our clients with the global insight needed in order to make the best informed business decisions across consumer driven sectors globally,” said Ranjit Tinaikar, managing director, Global Advisory & Investment Management for Thomson Reuters. “The PCSI will provide insight on a dozen countries across five continents, giving financial institutions, private business, and government bodies a comprehensive data set on economic conditions, intention, and expectations both presently and in the future. The launch of PCSI also supports Thomson Reuters vision to connect and enable the global financial community by providing customers with best-in-class solutions.”

The PCSI is the only dataset providing an aggregated global consumer sentiment series across 24 countries. The PCSI represents a composite index of 11 questions that have been running monthly in 22 countries since March 2010, in Brazil since 2005, and in the United States since 2002. The 24 country indices will be included free of charge to users of Eikon and Datastream.

For an additional fee, users will get access to the detailed questions used in the PCSI survey.  These questions are focused on areas such as individual’s appraisal of their homeland’s current economic status, their own personal economic status, and their future expectations for the local economy. Additional questions focus on consumer confidence, job security, and investments in the future. Demographic data allows analysts to paint a more accurate picture of the retail spending habits across age, gender, and economic sectors – available for the US with other countries to follow. 

“Anyone interested in closely tracking consumer sentiment, such as buy and sell side analysts covering consumer stocks or corporate planners, should find significant predictive value in the PCSI’s data. We believe this dataset is a leading indicator for consumption in the covered countries, and represents the most comprehensive dataset available in the market today,” added Tinaikar.

“As global financial markets become more interconnected and affected by consumer sentiment, we are pleased to work with Thomson Reuters to distribute the Thomson Reuters/Ipsos Monthly Global Primary Consumer Sentiment Index to investors in 24 countries,” said Dr. Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Global Public Affairs. “Consumer sentiment to date remains consistent with government data which indicates that 2015 will be a year of steady but cautious growth, and the PCSI remains the one index available that can provide actionable global insight into that growth.”

The PCSI offers clients all over the world unparalleled insight due to its global coverage. The monthly data output is derived from a balanced online sample that is weighed to the latest Census information of the general population in each country. The sample is aged 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries. Of the 24 countries surveyed 15 are representative of the general population: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States while the remaining nine of Brazil, China, India, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Turkey are comprised of more urban, educated and higher income respondents referred to as “Upper Deck Consumers” relative to their country general population.

Data will be released at 11:00 am EST the 2^nd Wednesday of every month, and will be accompanied by a series of reports providing commentary at the country level, starting with a subset of the 24 countries.

About Ipsos

Ipsos is an independent market research company controlled and managed by research professionals. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos has grown to a worldwide research group with a strong presence in all key markets and is the world’s third largest market research company. With offices in 87 countries and over 15,600 employees, Ipsos delivers insightful expertise across five research specializations: Ipsos Connect – the Media and Brand Expression Research Specialists; Ipsos Marketing – the Innovation and Brand Research Specialists; Ipsos Public Affairs – the Social Research and Corporate Reputation Experts; Ipsos Loyalty – the Customer and Employee Research Specialists; and, Ipsos Observer— the Survey Management, Data Collection and Delivery Specialists. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated global revenues of €1,669.5 million in 2014. The Ipsos Global @dvisor is a monthly product that surveys consumer-citizen populations and simultaneously in numerous countries on various issues and topics. Launched bi-annually in 2007, the PCSI survey instrument has been running monthly since March 2010 with a core of 24 countries. 

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, go to http://thomsonreuters.com/.