The Indian services sector has grown at its fastest pace in January, as compared to the last six months. The growth has been led by financial intermediation, hotels and restaurant sub-sectors. The expansion has been due to the improvement in the global economic scenario which led to a rise in new work orders. With investor sentiment improving due to improving global growth and easing of liquidity by the central bank, the services sector is likely to benefit more in the coming months. January's jump in new orders has pushed expectations for the future to their highest level since June 2011, consistent with the double-digit output growth of the service sector. Even though input prices in the services sector rose at their slowest pace since October, firms increased their prices charged at a faster rate.
These findings were reported by the economists of HSBC. The HSBC Business Activity Index, compiled by Markit and based on a survey of around 400 firms, has bounced to 58.94 in January from 54.2 in December. This was the third month the index has been above the 50-mark separating growth from contraction. Before that, it had shrunk for six months, hitting a trough of 40.3 in February last year.
India’s manufacturing sector has also expanded despite the Eurozone crisis. December recorded India's biggest monthly factory output, resulting in the fastest growth in eight months for the manufacturing sector.
Wholesale inflation, which has remained stubbornly high in India, slowed to a two-year low in December as food price pressures decreased substantially. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also seems to have shifted its focus to reviving growth instead of battling inflation. The RBI in its latest monetary policy review has cut the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points and has left the interest rates untouched after nearly two years of successive hikes. This is expected to inject $320 billion rupees into the banking system.
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