India’s services sector activity in November registers second-fastest pace of growth since July 2011: Survey

India’s services sector activity expanded at the second-fastest pace in more than a decade during November, driven by sustained rise in new work and improvement in market conditions, a monthly survey said on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index was at 58.1 in November, fractionally down from 58.4 in October. The November figure points to the second-fastest rise in output since July 2011.

For the fourth straight month, the services sector witnessed an expansion in output. In Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction.

“The recovery of the Indian service sector was extended to November, with a robust improvement in sales enabling the second-fastest rise in business activity in nearly ten-and-a-half years,” Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit, said.

Although companies forecast higher business activity volumes over the course of the coming year, the expansion is expected to be restricted by price pressures.

Amid reports of higher fuel, labour, material, retail and transportation costs, average input prices among Indian services companies rose further in November.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions reportedly caused a further drop in international demand for Indian services. The latest fall in external sales was the twenty-first in successive months although among the slowest over this period, the survey said.

As per the survey, private sector activity in India continued to expand, taking the current sequence of growth to four months.

The Composite PMI Output Index – which measures combined services and manufacturing output – rose from 58.7 in October to 59.2 in November, signalling the strongest upturn since January 2012.

“Looking at the manufacturing and service sectors combined, the results are even more encouraging and bode well for economic performance in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021/22 so far. With production growth quickening considerably in November, private sector output expanded at the fastest pace since January 2012,” Ms. Lima said.

India’s GDP growth stood at 8.4% in the second quarter of 2021-22 and surpassed the pre-COVID level, official data showed on Tuesday.