India’s services PMI expands to 51.7 in January; fastest growth in 3 months

05 Feb 2018 Evaluate

Maintaining expansion mode for the second straight month, activity in India’s services sector grew at the fastest pace in three months in January, with recovery in new business orders. Signaling a further increase in activity at the start of 2018, the seasonally adjusted Nikkei Services Business Activity Index remained above the neutral mark of 50.0 in January, posting reading at 51.7, up from 50.9 in December. Besides, as manufacturing production growth eased from December’s 60-month high, the Nikkei Composite Output Index, which measures both manufacturing and services, fell to 52.5 in January from 53.0 in December.

The report stated that new orders rose for the third consecutive month at manufacturing companies. It also said that growth rates for activity and employment accelerated since December, but remained weaker than their respective long-run survey averages. The latest survey data signalled that capacity constraints remained evident across both the manufacturing and service sectors, as the volume of outstanding business rose for the twentieth successive month.

It added that higher backlogs partly reflected delayed customer payments for orders. Reflecting improved demand conditions, manufacturers raised their payroll numbers for the sixth consecutive during January. Job creation accelerated to the second strongest in over six-and-a-half years, but, as firms struggled in receiving timely payments, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) continued to be a key constraint to businesses and the service sector remained a laggard relative to its manufacturing counterpart.

As per the report, Indian manufacturers registered a further marked increase in their average cost burdens during January. Subsequently, manufacturing companies reportedly raised their output charges to pass on higher input costs to consumers. On inflation front the survey revealed that service sector input price inflation stabilized at a moderate pace in January, remaining below the long-run survey average. That said, costs rose sufficiently to generate another increase in prices charged by service providers, with those in the Information & Communication sector registering the strongest inflation of charges.

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