India's manufacturing PMI in October sees rise amid job losses
Source: Xinhua | 2020-11-03
India's manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 58.9 in October from 56.8 in the preceding month on strong demand and production revival since late 2007 though job losses continued, according to a private survey released on Monday.
The robust sales growth led to the rise in index above the 50-level that separated growth from contraction for the third straight month.
"Levels of new orders and output at Indian manufacturers continued to recover from the COVID-19 induced contractions seen earlier in the year," said Pollyanna De Lima, economics associate director at IHS Markit that compiled the index.
Meanwhile, the compliance of government guidelines related to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a further reduction in employment for the seventh consecutive month.
"There was disappointing news on the employment front though, with October seeing another reduction in payroll numbers. Survey participants that noted job shedding mentioned having observed containment measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019," Pollyanna said.
Rising prices of input and output during the month under review indicated towards inflation though business optimism about the coming 12 months increased to its highest level since August 2016.
"Confidence towards the year-ahead outlook for production improved as firms hoped that fewer COVID-19 cases and the reopening of other businesses could boost output growth," Pollyanna said.
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