What's been driving growth in the retail segment?

01 Nov 2018 CW Team

With the Indian retail market steadily maturing and growing at a CAGR of 20-25 per cent, the development of organised retail is high on the radar of developers and institutional investors, says Anuj Kejriwal, Managing Director & CEO, Anarock Retail. 'Organised retail is estimated to increase to 19 per cent of all retail across the top seven cities by 2020, from 9 per cent currently.' While increasing urbanisation and improved consumer sentiment are popularly cited as retail growth drivers, steps to attract fresh investments are helping to grow the organised segment of the industry. Kejriwal cites allowing 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail and 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail under the automatic route as having attracted giants like Walmart to India, which, in turn, has boosted demand for superior malls. The GST policy overhaul is also attracting foreign players. The government's move to provide a single policy framework for retail, FMCG and e-commerce to offer a level playing field to all stakeholders is another step in the right direction.