Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy Consumer sentiments improved in January 2023. CMIE's Index of Consumer Sentiments (ICS) reached 83.9, which is the highest since sentiments were hit severely by the Covid-19 induced lockdowns. The ICS, however, continues to remain lower than its pre-pandemic level. The ICS was at 105.3 in February 2020.  The recovery in consumer sentiments from the pandemic has been the slowest among all economic indicators. While most production indicators...

Economic Times Unilever global chief executive Alan Jope said high inflation impacted demand from low income consumers in Indian villages even as growth remains stronger in cities. "The market growth in India remains stronger in urban areas than in Rural areas and that reflects the high impact of high food inflation on low income consumers. We are seeing rural markets broadly flat in value terms with lower volumes," Jope said during its...

Mint India’s rural borrowers and small businesses owners may have easier access to credit with public sector banks (PSBs) planning to increase financing to these segments, after the Union finance ministry urged lenders to improve their credit-deposit ratio. The C-D ration indicates how much of a banks' deposit base is being utilized for extending loans. The development may help expedite the revival of the rural economy, which is struggling to reach pre-covid...

DeCEDA/Qrius 2022 was a milestone year for India. India walked into 2022 with an infectious wave of Covid-19 impacting lakhs of people, the wave receded a few weeks into the year. As hopes for a post-pandemic recovery surged, war in Ukraine brought in new challenges for the economy. With supply chains disrupted, global sanctions imposed on Russia, prices of fuel and food shot up. Inflation, already on a high from pent-up...

Editorial team, Carbon Copy  Ongoing shifts in rainfall and temperature caused by climate change are likely to increase the debt burden faced by rural households, particularly of marginalised groups in dry areas, an editorial in Carbon Copy magazine said. The piece cited a study in the journal Climate Change that argues that changes in climate, along with existing socio-economic differences - caste and landholding in particular — will deepen the size...