KOLKATA: Sales growth of refrigerators ACs and washing machines in 2019 was the best since demonetisation , signalling a revival in discretionary purchases and kindling hopes that the economy is on the mend.Volume sales in the overall consumer electronics and major domestic appliances market grew 9% year-on-year in 2019 against 1% in 2018 and 4% in 2017, as per data released by GfK India. Industry executives attributed the revival largely to pentup demand.Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma said green shoots of consumption revival are visible now, with growth improving quarter-on-quarter. “Products such as ACs, refrigerators, washing machines and smartphones have become necessities,” he said.Brian Bade, CEO at India’s largest smartphone and electronics retailer Reliance Digital, said there is improvement in consumer sentiment. “Average billing size has gone up, as has same-store growth,” he said.Smartphone sales growth in 2019 took a marginal beating over 2018, but it was still better than 2016 and 2017, GfK data showed. Industry executives attributed this to lack of compelling product innovation in smartphones.At the same time, television sales in 2019 declined 2% due to a shift towards audio-visual consumption over smartphones.Despite the pickup in overall electronics and durables sales last year, the growth rates in most categories are still way below the pre-demonetisation days when sales used to grow in double digits. This shows that it might take some more time before a wide spectrum of consumers, such as those in rural India, opened their purses, industry experts said.GfK India managing director Nikhil Mathur said the growth in 2019 was driven by both first-time buyers and those upgrading their products. As per GfK data, refrigerator sales went up by 9% in 2019, those of washing machines by 12%, and air-conditioners by 25%.Smartphone sales growth in offline stores declined marginally from 10.9% in 2018 to 8.7% last year. Sales growth was lower in 2017 and 2016 at 7.5% and 4.3%, respectively. In online, smartphone sales remained resilient last year, growing at 45% like in 2018, GfK reported.As per GfK’s consumer life study, more than 60% of urban consumers aspire to spend on personal and home electronics followed by appliances (53%) and education (43%) in the next 12 months. “Thus, if other economic indicators and consumers’ mood remain stable, the overall consumer electronics category may show a good momentum,” Mathur said.He, however, warned that the supply chain of both smartphones and electronics may be impacted in the short term due to the Covid-19 outbreak in China, which could impact sales.GfK is the only agency in India that tracks real sales to consumers at retail points while other trackers release data based on product shipment, which could also include unsold inventory.“Sales started picking up since April-June quarter when products like refrigerators and airconditioners reported brisk sales due to extreme summer,” said Godrej Appliances business head Kamal Nandi.