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onald Lelepadang, 30, a key account executive at a fast-moving consumer goods company in Central Jakarta, has a new habit: Fiddling with his cellphone to look for various products for discounts.

He believes that buying products online is often much cheaper than buying the same products in malls.

'€œThis is a time for brand downgrading,'€ Ronald said, admitting that he was becoming more and more sensitive to pricing and felt compelled to manage his spending better.

The increased wariness among consumers like Ronald was revealed in a recent survey by Bank Indonesia (BI) that showed a significant decline in consumer confidence among middle-income earners.

BI'€™s consumer confidence index (IKK) shows that the confidence of consumers who spend more than Rp 5 million (US$380.52) monthly decreased by seven points to 108.8 in February from 115.8 in January, the steepest drop among all consumer groups. BI categorizes an index of better than 100 as indicating optimism, while a figure below 100 registers pessimism.

Confidence among consumers whose monthly spending ranges from Rp 2 million to Rp 3 million fell by three points to 108.6 in February.

However, for respondents who spent between Rp 1 million to Rp 2 million it rose by 1.3 and 1.4.

Economist Dian Ayu Yustina said the decline occurred because the highest spenders in the survey tended to reduce consumption of non-staple items following a decline in purchasing power.

Lower-spending consumers could still enjoy government subsidies in the forms of various programs from housing, education and health to staple-food market regulation.

Dian said that the recently published gross domestic product (GDP) composition had shown that consumer spending had yet to regain its momentum as the main driver of the economy, ceding the role partly to government spending and foreign investment.

'€œThe government economic stimuli have worked out but their impact on people'€™s purchasing power is not visible yet. People are still limiting their consumption,'€ she said, referring to a series of economic packages issued by the government to attract investment and therefore revive the country'€™s economy.

KDB Daewoo Securities Indonesia analyst Dang Maulida concurred saying people on middle incomes had higher personal financial goals so that negative economic sentiment would affect them hardest.

'€œBut that should not be of concern, as the economy is likely to rebound soon due to the low inflation, stable rupiah exchange rate and promising last quarter economic growth,'€ Dang said.

Indonesia saw its GDP expand at a rate of just 4.79 percent last year.

Household spending, which had been the country'€™s main engine for growth, contributing more than half of the nation'€™s GDP, suffered a setback last year as it rose by an annual rate of 4.96 percent in 2015, down from 5.14 percent in 2014.

Overall, the BI survey indicated that consumers had become less confident with the index falling to 110 in February from 112.6 in January. Respondents expressed concern about job security, resulting in a 6.6-point drop in the job expectation index to a pessimistic level of 98.4.

A recent spate of massive layoffs have hit various industries hard, both big and small, from the manufacturing sector and mining through to the banking sector.

As of September last year, it is estimated that around 80,000 workers had been laid off, according to Manpower Ministry data, as many businesses in the real sector took consolidation measures to improve the efficiency of their businesses amid the prolonged economic slowdown.

Reports confirmed by some companies have signalled that the wave of manpower downsizing will continue this year.

Like many others in the survey, Ronald'€™s confidence in consuming declined due to concern about the possibility of layoffs at his office, as some of his firm'€™s competitors had already shut up shop.

'€œIf that [being laid off] happens, I'€™ll sell my assets and move to a village,'€ he said.