CHENNAI: IF small businesses and other sectors are looking at a bleak Christmas and New Year, the situation is a little mixed in one of the largest employers in the organised manufacturing sector — automobiles. If experts and analysts are to be believed, the severe impact from demonetisation on auto sales in November has sligthly improved in December.
But this might be because December generally sees customers who want to buy automobiles at rates of the previous year book tickets. “The slew of price hike announcements by auto manufacturers which will come into effect in January might also be driving consumption,” pointed out a senior auto analyst.
In an announcement on Friday, India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki admitted that its bookings had taken a whopping 20 to 25 percent hit in October and November, primarily because of the effects of demonetisation in November.
And while the company said bookings had risen by 7 per cent in December, Chairman R C Bhargava had refused to say how the next few months would be like.
“The only thing which I am not prepared to do at this point is to make a forecast for the next few months. I want to have little bit of evidence as what happens in January before we predict for the whole year,” Bhargava had said.