Indian consumer demand falls for first time in decades: report

• Consumer demand in India's villages fell 8.8 percent between July 2017 and June 2018, compared with 2011-12, the Business Standard reported.
• Two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population lives in rural areas, making it a key economic driver. But spending on food, education and clothing declined.

MUMBAI: Consumer spending in India has slumped for the first time in four decades, a leading business daily reported Friday, bringing more bad news for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he struggles to revive a stuttering economy.

Consumer demand in India's villages fell 8.8 percent between July 2017 and June 2018, compared with 2011-12, the Business Standard reported, using unpublished National Statistical Office (NSO) data.

Two-thirds of India's 1.3 billion population lives in rural areas, making it a key economic driver. But spending on food, education and clothing declined, with demand for essential items such as cereals plunging 20 percent, the newspaper said.

Although urban consumption rose by two percent, overall per capita monthly spending in the country slipped 3.7 percent -- the first time it has fallen since 1972-73, the business daily said.

The report should have been released in June, but was pushed back because of its "adverse" findings, the Business Standard said, citing sources familiar with the matter.

A government official told AFP the report was not finished.