Economy improves marginally in September but weakness persists: Mint tracker
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Indian economy's performance improved in September compared to the previous month. However, there were still some signs of weakness compared to six months ago, showed the 16-high frequency indicators tracked by Mint in its monthly macro tracker.
Seven indicators were green, five red and four in amber in September. For each indicator, the value in each month is assigned a colour coding (red, amber and green) to denote where it lies relative to the five-year average (red denotes worse, amber denotes it is in line with the average range, and green denotes better). There is an improvement from the previous month when eight indicators were red but a slight deterioration from six months ago when only four indicators were red and nine were green.
The weakness in the consumer segment persisted in September, with passenger vehicle sales still below their five-year average trend even as tractor sales and domestic air passenger traffic improved slightly. At the same time, the producer segment, which had been strong in the past few months, recorded signs of weakness in core sector growth and rail freight traffic. From the external sector, a wider trade balance continued to flash red.
Indicators that added strength to the economy were the composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), non-food credit, inflation, real rural wages, and labour force participation rate. Mint macro tracker, which provides a monthly comprehensive report on the state of the economy, based on trends in 16 high-frequency indicators. The tracker has been running since October 2018.
