-PTI/ Financial Express Downtrading refers to the practice of switching from expensive products to cheaper alternatives by customers in a bid to conserve cash. FMCG manufacturers are opting to reduce product weight rather than price of items targeted at lower-end consumers, while resorting to single-digit price increase on some large packs and launching ‘bridge packs’, as they seek to overcome the impact of commodity price rise and unprecedented inflation. Besides, they are also...

-The Hindu Business Line Hike leads to 5% increase in average monthly household spend, says report Bengaluru: Prices of daily essentials and groceries in India have risen by up to 40 per cent. Consequently, monthly average household spend on essentials and groceries has gone up by 5 per cent since the April-June quarter of 2020, reveals a report by Ratan Tata-backed retail digitisation start-up SnapBizz. The report highlights that the FMCG price inflation...

-The New Indian Express An analysis by The New Indian Express shows that it is not just petrol and diesel prices that are scalding you. Prices of edible oil, tea, and pulses have seen a double-digit growth in the last year. When the April 2021 retail inflation came down to a modest 4.29%, an attempt might have been made to communicate a false sense of relief. The real picture, though, is very...

-The Hindu The transfer of the RBI’s surplus is only a stopgap measure which will not address the key problem of a lack of demand There is no longer any room for doubt on the parlous state of the Indian economy. The automobile industry, seen as a bellwether of activity in the post-liberalisation years, is in crisis, as automakers, parts manufacturers and dealers have laid off about 350,000 workers since April this...

-The Indian Express There is an emerging consensus among FMCG majors that, like their automobile counterparts, the impact of the slump is more evident in rural India and that, in geographical terms, the north is the worst hit. New Delhi: The impact of the deepening consumption slowdown is being felt beyond discretionary purchases such as vehicles and durables with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies manufacturing small-ticket items such as soaps, biscuits...