Budget, elections and consumer sentiments

Data available till January 2016 throw some light on sentiments in the election bound states

It was an extraordinary week that ended last Sunday. The government presented its fourth budget -- its first after demonetisation. There was an expectation that the government would do something extraordinary either because of demonetisation or because of the four state elections that were due soon after the budget presentation. The week also saw two of the four states -- Punjab and Goa vote in keenly contested triangular assembly elections.

The budget was arguably typically ordinary like most Modi government budgets have been so far. From the perspective of households, the budget did not contain changes that made a big