“I think in overall terms, this year looks to be more benign as far as food inflation is concerned. And therefore one is expecting that with an infusion of investment, of incomes into the economy, there will be signs of an uptick,” said Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director, Nestlé India.
“Since there is economic stability and a lot of programmes are being put around infrastructure investment— ₹11 trillion has been committed in the last vote-on-account budget that we’ve had—all this will definitely add to employment and to incomes. A lot of it will be flowing into consumption of essentials,” he added.
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Household consumption in India is witnessing duality.the rich Indians are acquiring more premium goods while the middle income segment is showing “signs of stress,” Narayanan said.
Looking at the demand, there are some stress points there, said Narayanan. The last festival season wasn’t as buoyant as expected. There was expected to be a lot more buoyancy in consumption. People did by more cars and more luxury items during the Diwali festive period. However, the demand for common man’s products was relatively muted, he said.
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“I think there is a phenomenon that one is noticing—there are polarities now developing, that is, boom in premiumization and tepidness in the mainstream,” Narayanan added.