Consumption in rural India growing at a faster pace than in cities: CRISIL study

30 Aug 2012 Evaluate

In a latest study by CRISIL it has been revealed that for the first time in two decades Consumption in rural India is growing at a faster pace than in cities and towns. It was reported that between 2009-10 and 2011-12, additional spending by rural India was Rs 375,000 crore, much higher compared to Rs 299,400 crore by urbanites in the same period. The CRISIL study also noted a shift in spending patterns in rural areas, with consumers moving beyond necessities such as toothpaste and soap to so-called discretionary products such as televisions and mobile phones.

Growth in rural consumption was fuelled by a rise in household incomes due to greater non-farm job opportunities and government initiated employment generation schemes. As per National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data, during 2004-05 to 2009-10, rural construction jobs rose 88 per cent, while the number of people employed in agriculture fell from 249 million to 229 million.  Migrants from villages to urban areas, who benefited from job opportunities in infrastructure and construction projects, increased remittances to their families in rural India, which has boosted consumption.

CRISIL’s study showed that nearly 42% of rural households owned a television in 2009-10, up from 26% five years earlier, while 14% of rural households had a scooter or motorbike in 2009-10, almost double to that in 2004-05.

The study has also lauded the efforts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), which fuelled job creation on an unprecedented scale and nearly 27 per cent of rural households availed themselves of employment under MGNREGS in 2009-10. However, it also said that despite the positive impacts of these schemes, pressure on public finances will make it difficult to significantly hike such spending in future.

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