Large shortfall in jobs; household incomes could be lower by 15% YoY in March: CMIE

According to the comprehensive numbers till October 2020, the household incomes were 12 percent lower than a year ago. “This may have improved a bit from there till March but in April, I think, it will get worse again. If employment is falling even further then income will fall even further. Incomes could be ranging around 15 percent lower than a year ago and that is quite bad,” Vyas pointed out.

Commenting on the COVID-19 impact, Aurodeep Nandi, India Economist & Vice President at Nomura, said, “We are getting an impact in terms of... Mobility indicators, driving traffic have been hit. Until last week, the real economy indicator seemed to be doing okay like railway freight, power demand, etc. What has happened is that power demand at least for this week still remains resilient but railway, passenger traffic and freight traffic have come down.”

Nomura has downgraded its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for FY22 to 12.6 percent from 13.5 percent.