kolkata indians shopped hard all through the festive season in what appears to have been a sudden switch in the consumer mood from abject gloom to enthusiasm driven in large part by a plethora of financing schemes and a governmentbacked push to such loans although theres no clear indication yet that the economy has bottomed out sales of consumer durables through the financing route grew at an unprecedented 8090 over last year with banks and nbfcs competing to fill the vacuum created by an rbi ban on zero per cent emi schemes on credit cards retailers and consumer goods manufacturers reported a surge in sales over last year almost across the board nbfcs such as capital first and shriram capital sought to make most of the opportunity public sector banks including state bank of india and punjab national bank joined the party by lowering interest rates on consumer durables loans just ahead of diwali after the finance ministry pushed them to do so to stimulate demand economists are hopeful the rise in festive season spending signals a recovery since consumer durables sales act as a barometer of growth the signs are so far good we expect industrial growth to rise to 34 in the coming months driven by consumer goods and basic goods sales said care ratings chief economist madan sabnavis still this contradicts the trend so far this year production of consumer durables fell 76 in august and 11 in aprilaugust the government said last month factory output as measured by the index of industrial production iip rose just 06 in august against 275 in july as part of efforts to stimulate demand and push economic growth the government last month finalised a rs 14000crore capital injection plan for staterun banks and told them to lower lending rates on consumer loans some banks even went to the extent of lowering their rates by 250 basis points one hundred basis points is one percentage point this seems to have had a strong effect with doubledigit growth in sales of largescreen television sets and smartphones leading to a 2025 jump in purchases by value at retail outlets leading retail chains and consumer electronics makers such as next retail the mobilestore future group sony and lg said the spurt in consumer financing schemes led to a successful festive season for the industry which has been battling a slowdown in demand due to muted job growth and high food inflation taking a big bite out of disposable income the government is battling to revive an economy that slumped to decadelow growth of 5 in the year to march finance minister p chidambaram expects a strong second half based on indicators such as a rise in exports faster core sector growth and a good monsoon that signifies a bumper harvest consumer finance schemes were the real hero this festive season with nbfcs taking the lead in cities and banks in smaller towns where penetration of nbfcs is still limited said ks raman director at