Mint Quick Edit | January auto sales ease anxiety over India’s K-shaped recovery from the pandemic
Vehicle sales in January should put smiles on many faces. Overall retail sales, according to data released by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations on Tuesday, grew about 18% from a year earlier to 2.72 million.
Not only is the number impressive, the expansion was broad-based across segments. Passenger vehicle sales grew 7.2% and commercial vehicles grew 15.1%, while tractor and three-wheeler sales clocked similarly high growth rates.
January’s show-stealer is a 21% rise in two-wheeler sales, an acceleration from December, when the GST reset began to take effect after a disappointing November. A bulk of the two-wheeler offtake last month was in rural areas.
It can be counted as good news that two-wheeler unit sales outpaced passenger vehicles, just as it’s a relief that GST rate cuts have helped revive demand for small cars, as other reports indicate.
Signs of a “K-shaped” recovery from the pandemic, with premium vehicles doing far better than modestly priced ones, finally seem to be fading in such well-tracked markets. The hope now is that the fiscal boost imparted by GST relief endures. The Indian economy needs robust sales growth across categories.
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