India’s manufacturing sector activity lost momentum and fell to a three-month low in November amid slower increases in factory orders, exports, and buying levels, a monthly survey said on Tuesday.
The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell from 58.9 in October to a three-month low of 56.3 in November, indicating that the manufacturing sector growth remained strong, despite losing traction. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction.
“The Indian manufacturing sector remained on the right path to recovery, with strong growth of new orders and output sustained during November,” Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit, said.
“Companies noted that the pandemic was the key factor weighing on growth during November, with COVID-related uncertainty also restricting business confidence,” she added.
On the price front, input costs and output charges rose at accelerated rates that nevertheless remained below their respective long-run averages.
Meanwhile, India’s economy recovered faster than expected in the September quarter as a pick-up in manufacturing helped GDP clock a lower contraction of 7.5 percent.
The data comes days after official statistics showed that the Indian economy was technically in recession, even as the gross domestic product (GDP) contraction eased to 7.5 percent in the second quarter after the unprecedented 23.4 percent decline seen in the April to June quarter, which saw the most stringent Covid-19 lockdown.