An Economy That Is On Tenterhooks

A rosy future in economic terms makes people buy. A glum one makes people save. The sad point is that when people save, the economy shrinks

- Harish Bijoor

A lot of us love to toss the GDP acronym around in our conversations. Literally everything we talk about in economic terms seems to somehow find its way to the GDP as a metric of comparison that seems to measure just about everything in an all-embracing manner.

The monetary value of goods and services made within a country during a year seems to define the economic efforts of many countries. As we look around at the world, in sheer GDP terms, the pecking order of nations is clear. The US ($20.4 trillion), China ($14 trillion) and Japan ($5.1 trillion) seem to be the top three.

As I think GDP, I cannot help imagine that the GDP of every nation is bound to contract in these pandemic times. This is true for every nation, but let’s think this out for India.

A lockdown—a series of lockdowns, in fact, ranging from 1.0 to 5.0—has the entire economy on the back foot. The celebratory economy is dead and what we have is an economy on tenterhooks. An economy that is just about focusing on what is basic.

In the category of products, the biscuit is on a boom, the ready-to-eat category is doing well and products that talk hygiene and immunity are doing very well. As you climb the value chain in the category of consumption, however, there is trouble. There is lesser and lesser consumer interest for now. The consumer is on wait-and-watch mode.