Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The retail sector sales have witnessed a moderate seven per cent increase year-on-year in June 2023, said the 41st edition of the Retail Business Survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI).
The survey indicated growth in sales across all the regions of the country, with 8 per cent growth in Southern India, 7 per cent growth in Eastern, 6 per cent growth in Western India, and 5 per cent in North India.
Sector-wise, food & grocery, and footwear sales grew by 15 per cent, followed by jewellery at 14 per cent and sports goods by 13 per cent. While beauty, wellness personal care; and QSR recorded growth 8 per cent, furniture and furnishing witnessed slow growth at just 3 per cent.
Speaking about the findings, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI said, “Retailers witnessed a modest growth of 7 per cent in the month of June 2023. Food & grocery and footwear showed a growth of 15 per cent while jewellery has shown a 14 per cent growth.
As consumers are now getting into their normal business routines, we are witnessing moderate growth over the previous year. We need to wait till the festival season to draw definitive conclusions.”
Also read: FY23 retail sales jump 34% from previous fiscal: RAI survey
Overall, the FY23 had recorded sales growth of 34 per cent as compared to FY22.
Retailers Association of India is a not-for-profit representative organisation for the retail sector. It has over 2300 members, with a network of over 6 lakh outlets and 20 lakh employees. In July 2021, the government announced the inclusion of retail, as well as wholesale trade under the MSME definition, which was revised in 2020 post-Covid for the limited purpose of priority sector lending.
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Moreover, in December 2022, the government’s credit guarantee scheme for micro and small enterprises (MSEs) under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) had brought retail and wholesale trade by micro and small enterprises at par with other segments or activities eligible for credit guarantee cover under the scheme.