Although the mop-up in August was 12% lower than a year ago, the pace of decline was a little slower from the 14% registered in July, indicating that economic activity is stabilising. The improvement seemed to be visible also in the fact that, excluding imports, there were at least six states – Nagaland, J&K, Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – which reported an increase in collections till August, compared to three at the end of the previous month.