Only anemic growth can come from anemic consumption.

"India's forex reserves crossed $500 billion for the first time ever in the week ended June 5, 2020. Unlike in 1991, when India had to pledge its gold reserves to stave off a major financial crisis, the country can now depend on its soaring foreign exchange reserves to tackle any crisis on the economic front." It could be because our demand for oil slumped by 70% in April, reducing the need for foreign exchange. However, "India's gasoline and diesel demand is expected to return to pre-lockdown levels in July, an executive at the country's second largest fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corp said on Thursday." Crude oil prices have fallen to below $40 per barrel, with the benchmark Brent crude at $38.73 a barrel, but the price of fuel is rising in India because, "According to a report by Care Ratings, the hike effectively meant that the Central government is collecting around 270 percent taxes on the base price of petrol and 256 percent in the case of diesel." Economic growth fell to 3.1% in the March quarter, which included one week of lockdown, and was 4.2% for the whole of 2019-20. Reducing transport costs would reduce prices, stimulate demand and increase job creation. Especially as, "currently almost 60 percent of India's GDP is determined by consumption. But this primary component of the economy has dropped from double digits in the second quarter of the last fiscal to 3.1 percent and 5.1 percent in the first two quarters of the current fiscal respectively. Such worrying trends had not even occurred as a result of the 2008 crisis," wrote Prof Amit Kapoor in December 2019, showing that the economy was falling even before the pandemic. Why hit consumers now that the World Bank predicts that, "It expects India's gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 3.2% in 2020-21. There will be a moderate recovery to 3.1% growth in 2021-22, " wrote Roshan Kishore and Abhishek Jha. "However, the impact of the contraction will vary across sectors, states, even social groups." "For example, it can be expected that at least two sectors, agriculture and government, will not see a contraction. In 2019-20, these two sectors had a share of almost 30% of Gross Value Added (GVA). This means that the economic pain will be far more severe in the rest of the economy." The government has passed ordinances allowing farmers to sell their produce directly to customers anywhere in India, without having to go through wholesale markets, known as 'mandis', wrote Sayantan Bera. Perhaps, hoping that farmers can get a higher price without raising prices for consumers because middle-men will be eliminated. Greater tax collection on oil will help the government to spend more. "In 2017-18 and 2018-19, the government expenditure has grown by about 15 percent and 9.25 percent respectively. This is what makes the Indian growth numbers -- even in their low state -- unsustainable if status quo is maintained," wrote Kapoor. That is because the government spends money on revenue expenditure, which includes salaries and subsidies, estimated to be Rs 24.5 trillion out of total expenditure of Rs 27.9 trillion. Our very own vampire squid.