India’s consumer spending boomed during the festive season as sales at online platforms like Amazon and Flipkart was up by almost a fifth in the first week of the festive sales from a year ago, says a report.
According to the report by RedSeer, transactions recorded by Unified Payments Interface (UPI) surged about 40 per cent in October from a year earlier.
Sales are a key indicator of the health of consumption, which makes up about 60 per cent of India’s gross domestic product.
Stronger spending helps to drive manufacturing activity in Asia’s third-largest economy and underpinning growth of more than 6 per cent in the current fiscal year.
The report said online sales from Amazon, Flipkart and others reached USD 565 million till October 15.
Mobile phones, electronic goods, and large appliances drove around 67% of the sales, it said.
India’s key payment infrastructure, UPI, processed transactions worth Rs 16.46 trillion from October 1 to 30, marking an increase of over 40 per cent from last year.
Credit card payments also witnessed a jump of 16 per cent to Rs 1.42 trillion in September, data from the Reserve Bank of India shows.
Manufacturing activity also showed a surge in activity during the festive season as the peak electricity demand surged to an all-time high of 240 gigawatts in September, topping the government’s forecasts.
Factory floors are also buzzing with manufacturers adding more capacity to keep up with the strong demand.
“Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection rose 10 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 1.6 trillion in September,” the report stated.
The spending is expected to grow in the near future too as the festive season is expected to be followed by a robust wedding period. The spending is aided by the easy availability of credit and expectations of cooling inflation.