NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s top retail body said on Sunday that sales during the Diwali holiday season in the country rose more than 10% year-on-year, indicating “good business prospects” for retailers. small enterprises.
The Confederation of All Indian Traders (CAIT), which claims to represent tens of millions of businesses across the country, said its members’ sales during the month-long festive season which ended on Saturday rose to more than 720 billion rupees ($9.7 billion). ).
“People haven’t bought anything in the last eight months except for essentials. Therefore, people had enough excess money and some of it was spent on Diwali festivities,” CAIT general secretary Praveen Khandelwal told Reuters.
ACPI members include retailers that sell everything from electrical goods to furniture and shoes. The trade body said it collected sales data from 20 cities.
Despite the upbeat report, India’s economy, which grew at the slowest pace in more than a decade in the year to the end of March, is likely to slip into a technical recession for the first time since independence in 1947.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forecast an 8.6% contraction in the July-September quarter, following a 23.9% contraction in the April-June quarter.
However, India could return to growth in the current quarter ending December 2020 if the “momentum” gained in September and October continues, the RBI said this week.
The central bank said there was “optimism that the recovery in economic activity is stronger than simply satisfying pent-up demand”, adding that similar consumption patterns could ensure a return to growth earlier. sooner than expected.
($1 = 74.5800 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Written by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Hugh Lawson
