Factory production at 3-month high in Aug

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : India’s manufacturing PMI rose to a three-month high of 58.6 in August on the back of an increase in orders and output, a private survey showed. According to S&P Global, India’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for manufacturing stood at 57.7 in July, 57.8 in June, and 58.7 in May. A figure of 50 separates expansion from contraction.

“The S&P Global PMI showed a robust improvement in manufacturing sector conditions across India, as new orders," the survey said. “Firms geared up to handle rising demand by scaling up buying levels and rebuilding their input stocks at the second-strongest pace in 18-and-a-half years of data collection," it said, adding that while cost inflationary pressures accelerated on the price front, there was a slower uptick in selling charges. The Indian economy expanded 7.8% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year on higher government and private capital expenditure and strong services growth, official estimates released on Thursday showed.

Following the release of the GDP estimates, Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran said that government’s schemes, like the production-linked incentives and PM Gati Shakti Mission, will push domestic manufacturing. He added that high-frequency indicators, like the PMI, do not indicate that the manufacturing sector is in particular distress.

“The PMI results for India painted a vibrant picture of the nation’s manufacturing landscape in August. Robust and accelerated increases in new orders and production suggest that the sector looks set to provide a strong contribution to second quarter (fiscal) economic growth," said Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in the survey. “Companies’