From sales figures of manufacturers, retailers and brands that have gone public with results it is possible to get a sense of how India's consumers are willing to spend disposable income.

Discounting to drive sales

While some figures make impressive reading, remember that this year witnessed an increase in discounting and price led promotions to generate sales.

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• Future Group - India's biggest domestic retailing and consumer finance group - report Diwali sales up 18% on last year.

• Pantaloon Retail report 87% annual growth in its value retail formats Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar, its highest increase in three years.

• Blenders Pride - Pernod Ricard's leading Indian whisky - witnessed festival fueled growth, contributing to a 40% sales increase this year.

• Cooptex, the Tamil Nadu state owned fabric retailer reported a sales jump of 23%.

• Bangalore Jewellers' Association reported unspecified sales increases on last year.

Strong home entertainment figures

• Sony India experienced sales growth of 50% on year previous.

• Whirlpool India's quarterly revenue running up to Diwali increased 23% on last year.

• Samsung India experienced festival sales growth of 35% compared to the corresponding period in 2007.

Poor auto performance

• Car sales failed to bounce back, dropping 6.6% year-on-year on the run up to Diwali.

• Maruti Suzuki group sales fell 8%, worryingly their - thought to be - resilient compact car portfolio also dropped 8% with sales of 43,434 units, down from 47,077 units in October 2007.

• Motorcycle sales at Bajaj were down 34% to 163,000 units, versus 248,000 units last year.