BB Bhattacharya, professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, said, "All companies in this sector are aggressively marketing their products."He pointed out that a lot of consumer durables have their major clientele in the upper-bracket income group. Even those items which are in the non-durables sector have done well.

For instance, the IIP for cotton textiles, used by people with lower purchasing power, went down from 119.1 in April 1998 to 117.2 in April 1999. On the other hand, the IIP for wool, silk and man-made fibre textiles -- which are used by the well-off-registered an IIP of 191.5 in April 1999 as against 164 in April 1998.

Subir V Gokarn, chief economist(visiting) National Council of Applied Economic Research, agreed with Bhattacharya that the World Cup had its impact on th0e durables segment. "In this segment, a lot of cyclility is involved, which is not in the durables segment." One can prepone or postpone the purchase of a bigger refrigerator, but not of shaving cream.

About the impressive growth in the capital goods sector, Gokarn said, "Now, capital goods also include telecom and other hi-tech equipment. So, the growth in the typical machinery and equipment, which have been traditionally identified with the capital goods sector, may not be very high." He related the high industrial growth this April to the political situation. "April 1998 was the month when there was no government, no Budget, no policy. On the other hand, there was a budget in April this year and there was a government, though under the clouds of uncertainty."

Bhattacharya did not think that there were any "visible signs" of upward mobility. "We have to watch the month of May."Gokarn also said that the high growth in April may have some sort of correlation with recovery in agriculture. But this recovery has to spread in segments like exports and investment.