Opinion | Stuck in first gear
1 min read . Updated: 14 Jul 2020, 09:27 PM ISTSIAM does not expect to see a new sales peak for several years. This bodes poorly for India’s manufacturing sector and the rest of its economy
Fresh automobile sales figures from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) suggest a sputtering economy. On Tuesday, the automotive body released data for June, a month that marked the start of our “unlock" phase after a long corona lockdown. Hopes had arisen of a burst of pent-up demand, helped along by a new wave of demand for personal wheels, given the infection risks of public transport. The offtake of passenger vehicles, however, was only half the figure of June 2019.
SIAM does not expect to see a new sales peak for several years. This bodes poorly for India’s manufacturing sector and the rest of its economy. While July sales may be slightly better, given signs of an economic pickup, the expectation that seems to have fallen flat is that of people adopting personal vehicles in a big way to avoid corona exposure. Even if many more Indians would like their own set of wheels, they do not seem confident of being able to pay for it. Two-wheelers have performed relatively better, but this is probably because our rural sector has held up better than the rest of the country. All considered, a broad revival looks disappointingly distant.
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