THE BSE-CMIE TRACKER
Consumer Sentiments Index (Base: September - December 2015 = 100)
per cent to 16.8 per cent.
Perhaps, a good monsoon after two years played a bigger role in the minds of households than the tradition of Pitru Paksha.
The week ended September 10 was the first week of the 2017 Pitru Paksha period.
On a net basis, the percentage of households who believed that it is a good time to buy consumer durables rose 0.5 points compared to the earlier week. This, again, is contrary to what is expected of a Pitru Paksha period in India. More importantly, the proportion of net buyers has been falling more or less systematically since the beginning of August 2017. In the week ended July 30, 10.3 per cent of the households believed that this was a good time to buy. By the end of week ended September 3, this was down to a mere 0.3 per cent. The first week of Pitru Paksha did not make this ratio worse. It raised it to 0.8 per cent.
It is noteworthy that the question addressed to households does not talk about the future. It talks about the present. Households overwhelmingly said that the Pitru Paksha time was a good time to buy and not a bad time to buy. How do we square this with the rise in overt Hindutva?
Apparently, Indian households are more rational economic agents than their culture may make them look like. A good monsoon after a long break in 2016 warranted an exception to cultural traditions. An auspicious Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam, Janmashthami along with Bakra Id and Pateti — all in August 2017 — could not lift consumer sentiments during the month in the face of a very poor jobs scenario. Rationality, apparently, is an integral part of the argumentative Indian as an economic agent.
We shall soon see what households tell us during the remaining period of Pitru Paksha this year.