New Delhi : India’s manufacturing sector activity improved marginally in April on strong demand and output, amid easing inflationary pressures, says a monthly survey.
The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), rose from 51.0 in March to 51.6 in April, indicating faster improvement in the health of the country’s manufacturing economy than in the prior month.
“The Indian manufacturing economy started the quarter on a slightly stronger footing as growth picked-up from March’s five-month low, buoyed by stronger demand conditions,” Aashna Dodhia, an economist at IHS Markit, said.
“Encouragingly, PMI data highlighted inflationary pressures moderated for the second month in a row, with input cost and output charge inflation at the weakest since September 2017 and July 2017 respectively.”
While India’s retail inflation has eased this year and hit a five-month low of 4.28 percent in March it remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4 percent.