Indian auto sales declined for the 10th month in a row. The slowdown is real. It's going to be a year already.
But do you know what's actually wrong with the economy? Policies? Government? Central Bank? Externals? Yes, everything to an extent. But what's most wrong? Our expectations. Let the economy take a breathe for God's sake! For the past one or two decades, Indians have been buying and buying vehicles. Those who didn't have anything finally bought a good mileage motorbike or scooter by equity or loan and those who already had one went for four wheelers. Even those who had 4-wheelers went for more of them or upgraded to a higher brand to suit their standards of living. And we want and expect this to continue till eternity. Do you know what all this has lead to?
Pune has more number of vehicles than humans (check here)
Those poor fellows living in Bangalore cover a distance of 3kms in half an hour
Doctors advise staying at home rather than going for running in Delhi-NCR
It has to take a pause. We've all enjoyed the boom and so we have to brace for the slowdown.
Cyclicity is a natural (and economic) phenomenon. It's nature's way of balancing things, though of course there is always a trigger to it. Slowdown isn't a horny phenomenon that will come only because it hasn't in the past eight or ten years. The UPA government had done much of the settings and wiring of the bomb. All it required was the NDA to press the stupid button of demonetization and boom - welcome to slowdown. Thankfully, RBI believes it is cyclical and not structural.
So let's just not be overwhelmed with the news coming every other day. Let the government and the RBI do their part to get the country through this tough phase and revive the economy and let's applaud the efforts of the entrepreneurs who are generating employment in a completely different way that no one had thought of five years ago
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