Almost normal: Consumer sentiment soared to near pre-pandemic levels in Nov

In 2023, Indians were more willing to spend on discretionary items and adopt digital transactions. Consumer sentiment soared tonear pre-pandemic levels in November 2023, after dipping sharply in early 2023. It was only two per cent below the November 2019 mark. This was significantly better than the 18 per cent decline in January 2023 compared to January 2019. 

Compared to rural, urban families reported lower confidence to spend both before and during the pandemic. While consumer senti­ment for rural respondents is 2 per cent less than what it was in November 2019, for the urb­an respondents, it lags by 5 per cent (chart 1).

 

The World Bank reported that over 80 million Indians made their first digital transaction after the pandemic. The value of transactions through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) grew 16 times in five years, reaching Rs 139.2 trillion in FY23. In FY24 so far, digital transactions worth over Rs 125 trillion were made (chart 2).

 

Aviation witnessed a resurgence in domestic passenger traffic. Airlines carried over 88 million passengers between April and October 2023, higher than the same period in FY20. But fewer foreign tourists visited compared to 2019 (charts 3, 4).

 

Auto sales remained below FY19 levels. In FY23, though, they were 20 per cent more than FY22 (chart 5). While two-wheelers led the sales, only 15.9 million were sold in FY23 compared to 21.1 million in FY19. Passenger vehicles surpassed pre-pandemic sales at 3.9 million.

 

Meanwhile, six films became all-time top grossers in calendar 2023, compared to 10 in 2019. Their cumulative box office collection in 2023 was Rs 2,913 crore (figures as on December 20), surpassing the Rs 2,110 crore collected in 2019. But total box-office collection lagged 2019 levels (chart 6).