Industry Body Assocham Says Economy Showing Signs Of Improvement
India’s economy has shown resilience in the last few months, says Assocham.
Industry body Assocham on Thursday said that India's economy has shown resilience in the last few months amid the coronavirus pandemic with indicators for manufacturing activity and exports returning to growth trajectory.
The chamber's Assessment on State of Economy report pointed towards a pick up in the coming months. "Be it India's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI - Manufacturing) or PMI for Services, robust recovery is visible. The PMI for Manufacturing expanded to 56.8 in September 2020, the highest since January 2012. The PMI for Services expanded for the fifth straight month in September to 49.8 from 41.8 in August."
"With the unlocking of the economy almost complete, people are returning to work, wearing masks and maintaining social distancing. However, a continuous campaign by the Centre, states and the local governments would be required to reinforce these habits further," Assocham secretary general Deepak Sood said.
Sood also said that despite the health emergency, the government pressed the accelerator for changes in labour laws, agriculture, defence production and incentives for domestic manufacturing.
As more and more services reopen, the Goods and Services Tax collections are expected to pick up further, the assessment revealed. The country’s GST collections grew 4% to Rs 95,480 crore in September.
Rail freight showed a 15% growth in September. Similarly, annualised power consumption was up 4.6% for the month at 113.5 billion units.
Exports too, have returned to the positive territory, logging in 5.27% annualised growth at $27.4 billion for September.
"As we have been pointing out, there would be a marked improvement in the third and fourth quarter. With the festival season kicking in, the consumer spending has started showing positive signals. A cautious optimism should soon replace the entire cash conservation mind-set," Sood said.