The record generation of average daily goods and services tax (GST) e-way bills in August this year owing to pre-festive stocking indicates a revival in confidence and this, coupled with softening commodity prices, bodes well for the upcoming festive season, ICRA noted.

India’s gross domestic product will rise by 7.2 per cent in fiscal 2022-23 aided by a revival in contact-intensive services owing to pent up demand and a back-end pick-up in government and private capital expenditure, while the year-on-year growth is expected to slow from the first quarter (Q1) to Q2 and further to the second half, ICRA recently forecast.

However, the decline in output of key kharif crops and flagging external demand pose risks to growth and remain the key monitorables.

Consumer confidence levels improved in July this year compared to May with a pick up in perceptions around employment, household income and spending. However, they remained in the pessimistic zone.

Households’ current expectations on spending improved further in the July round of ICRA’s survey, with both essential and non-essential spending seeing an uptick. However, the gap between the two remains elevated, as expectations around spending on non-essential items remained in the negative territory.

The ICRA business activity monitor rebounded to 114.1 in August after having declined to the five-month low of 113.5 in July In YoY terms. As many as nine of the 16 constituent indicators posted a double digit YoY growth in August.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)