Manufacturing PMI rises to decade high

India’s manufacturing may be back on track, rebalancing itself from the Covid-19 impact, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) data, released by IHS Markit, shows.

India’s manufacturing PMI rose to 58.9 in October, the highest it has achieved in more than a decade.

Driven by robust sales, the pace gathered by manufacturing output–a crucial component of the headline PMI–was the quickest since October 2007, contributing to the PMI’s gains, the monthly report by IHS Markit said.

Headline PMI went past 56.8, seen in September, which was an eight-year high.

A PMI value above 50 indicates that activity expanded in a month over the previous one. But it should be noted that the PMI is a month-over-month indicator, showing improvement over the previous month, and not over the previous year.

In addition, manufacturers spent more on buying inputs in October too. The reopening of sectors took overall confidence to a 50-month high.

But on employment, the payroll numbers are still low, and in fact, lower than in the previous month, due to pandemic-related restrictions on companies.