About right time to shut the Ministry of Statistics...
//The survey in question was carried out during the period between July 2017 and June 2018. It found that spending in rural India went down by 8.8 per cent for the period, while the corresponding fall for urban India stood at 2 per cent over a 6-year span.//
//The survey found that rural Indians bought less of all food products barring milk and milk-related items. Worryingly, consumers from all parts of the country — including urban areas — spent drastically less on essential food items such as oil, salt, sugar and spices, the article highlighted.//
//According to former Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, the real worry is in the area of welfare. "A fall in food spending, especially in villages, shows that malnutrition has increased. It would be fair to say that poverty must have increased significantly," he said. These findings could stoke further fears about the state of the economy as a fraught GDP season approaches — most analysts see Q2 GDP growth plummeting to around 4%.//
Consumer spending declines for first time in four decades