December Manufacturing Output Joint-Fastest In Last 10 Months On The Back Of New Products, Healthy Demand: PMI Survey

New product drives, along with healthy demand conditions boosted production growth during December 2019, a survey report said on Thursday (2 January).

Accordingly, the IHS Markit India Manufacturing PMI said that India's manufacturing output rose at "a marked pace in December, the joint-fastest in ten months".

The seasonally adjusted PMI reading rose to 52.7 in December from 51.2 in November.

An index reading of above 50 indicates overall increase compared with the previous month, and below 50 the decrease.

Nonetheless, owing to a weak performance in October and November, the average quarterly reading for Q3 FY20 was the lowest since the three months to September 2017, the survey report said.

Besides, at the sub-sector level, growth was led by consumer goods, "though intermediate goods also made a stronger contribution to the headline figure".

On the other hand, "capital goods remained in contraction".

Besides, the uptick in total sales was supported by higher demand from overseas. New export orders expanded for the twenty-sixth month in a row, albeit modestly, the survey report said.

"Factories benefited from a rebound in demand, and responded by scaling up production to the greatest extent since May. There were also renewed increases in input purchasing and employment during December," said Pollyanna de Lima, Principal Economist at IHS Markit.

"However, a note of caution is evident from the survey's measure of business confidence. The degree of optimism signalled at the end of 2019 was the weakest in just under three years, reflecting concerns over market conditions, which could restrict job creation and investment in the early part of 2020."

In terms of price points, indicators showed an accelerated rate of inflation for both input costs and output charges.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)