ICCK

“Encouragingly, new export orders rose sharply, particularly for goods producers. Input prices rose at the slowest pace in three-and-a-half-years. Producers were able to do both – lower the rate of increase in output prices and improve margins,” said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist, HSBC.

Growth was higher for both manufacturing and service sector firms, with manufacturing activity rising to a five and services activity climbing to a seven month high in February.

“International markets again made a positive contribution to companies' order books, as seen by the fastest expansion in new export work since last September,” the report stated.
 

Firms recorded higher sales from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East.
 

The Flash PMI records 75-85% of the total 800 Purchasing Managers Index survey responses by services and manufacturing firms received each month. The final manufacturing PMI will be released on March 1 and the services and composite PMI on March 5.
 

Muted global commodity prices have provided support to companies by keeping wholesale prices contained.

Wholesale inflation eased to 0.27% in January on the back of easing prices of manufactured products and food products. Consumer inflation also cooled to a three month low in February, on the back of declining core inflation, which fell to 3.3%.

On the jobs front, payroll numbers were unchanged in February compared with the previous month despite firms experiencing higher orders.

There was some debt to business confidence.

“The overall level of business confidence slipped from January's four-month high, but remained indicative of a robust degree of optimism towards growth prospects,” the report stated.

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