Despite slowdown, consumer goods sector grows 15 per cent

“At times of economic slowdown, for instance, consumers may be cutting down on durable and other capital expenditure but cannot avoid spends on daily necessities,” said the report jointly prepared by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce &Industry and industry tracker Technopak Consultants. The FMCG industry, currently estimated to be at Rs 120,000 crore is expected to touch revenues of Rs 3.55 trillion ($74 billion) by 2018, the report added. A major portion of the demand came from rural India, which saw higher consumption due to growing incomes from government programmes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS).

“The rural market is growing in leaps and bounds. These people are more brand conscious than their urban counterparts,” Procter & Gamble Managing Director Shantanu Khosla said.
Indo-Asian News Service