KOLKATA|NEW DELHI: Consumers are continuing to hold back on discretionary spending with categories such as television, home appliances, fashion, lifestyle and apparel posting poor sales in the October-December quarter, with no recovery in sight in January as well, despite almost all brands and retailers running end-of-season and Republic Day sales.According to white goods industry sales tracker GfK, television sales declined by 8% while refrigerator grew by about 2% and washing machine by around 3% during the quarter, even as leading companies said sales in January continued to remain muted at similar levels.Three senior industry executives said fashion and lifestyle brands and retailers reported 10-12% drop in sales in the same period with the ongoing discount failing to lift the mood. There is no third-party agency which tracks apparel sales.”Consumer sentiments are poor and there are no signs yet of any recovery,” said Godrej Appliances business head Kamal Nandi. “Either a GST (goods and services tax) rate cut for the category from existing 28%, or a strong summer, can only help revive sentiments,” he said.62730571 In January, television sales were flat while other categories grew at 3-4% with regional festivals such as Pongal and Lohri failing to revive market. Leading electronics store chain Vijay Sales managing partner Nilesh Gupta said all brands are facing the heat. “Prices have progressively gone up for white goods and unless there is any new offer or scheme, consumers are not willing to spend. Even brands have significantly cut down marketing and promotional spend. The worst impacted are semi-urban and smaller towns.”Three senior executives with top apparel retailers said their sales are so pathetic that they may have to push the ongoing discount till the end of February to clear the piled-up inventory of last quarter.Lifestyle International executive director Vasanth Kumar said sales picked up for a brief period at December-end due to the beginning of discounts, but that again fizzled out in January.