Ease of doing business for MSMEs: Retailers including micro, small and medium units across the country saw 15 per cent growth in sales in October in comparison to the year-ago period and 19 per cent vis-a-vis the pre-pandemic sales level as of October 2019, said the latest retail business survey by retail body Retailers Association of India (RAI) on Monday. The September retail sales growth stood at 21 per cent as compared to September 2019 before Covid.
Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO at RAI said the removal of pandemic-related restrictions has resulted in the all round growth of retail businesses across regions and categories. However, in order to understand the complete impact of the festival season on retail sales, it is essential to see the figures for October and November combined, he added. “We would await the results for the month of November to draw definitive conclusions. However, all the signs indicate a positive trend.”
The survey showed retailers across regions registering growth in sales as compared to pre-pandemic levels with West India signalling a growth of 25 per cent followed by South India and East India with a growth of 18 per cent each and North India at 14 per cent as compared to sales levels in October 2019.
Category-wise, consumer Durables and electronics showed 38 per cent growth followed by Quick Service Restaurants with 33 per cent growth as compared to October 2019 sales. Other categories such as sports goods and food & groceries continued to indicate sales growth at 30 per cent and 23 per cent sales respectively from pre-pandemic levels.
For the uninitiated, retail traders apart from wholesale traders were brought back under the MSME definition in July last year by the government to provide priority sector lending benefits to them.
According to the RBI