Comments
The manufacturing sector in India ended the fiscal with the strongest operating conditions, a study based on a survey by S&P Global released on Monday said. However, not much improvement was seen on the job front.
The result of the survey, better known as the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing, closed the fiscal year at 56.4 as against 55.3 in February. The manufacturing sector has a share of over 15 per cent in gross value added (GVA) and is considered a sector for job multipliers.
“With pressure on supply chains subsiding and raw material availability improving, input cost inflation retreated to its second-lowest mark in two-and-a-half years,” it said, while adding that producers concentrated on rebuilding their stocks. Commenting on the survey result, Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director, S&P Global Market Intelligence, said that companies reported abundant capacity among themselves and their suppliers. Pending workloads expanded only marginally in March, hindering job creation. As for supply chains, improved availability of raw materials among vendors resulted in shorter delivery times and easing price pressures. Overall, input costs rose at the second-slowest rate since September 2020.
“Firms tried to benefit as much as possible from this moderation in inflation by acquiring additional raw materials and semi-finished items. This contributed to one of the strongest increases in input inventories in over 18 years of data collection. Although manufacturers were upbeat about future orders, they somewhat doubted that inflation would continue to recede. Such worries restricted optimism toward output prospects,” she said.
Mild pressure
The survey result showed that there was evidence of only mild pressure on the capacity of goods producers, as outstanding business volumes rose at a marginal rate that was the weakest in a year. Hence, “goods producers kept payroll numbers broadly unchanged in March. This followed a one-year sequence of monthly increases in employment,” the result said.
- Also read: Manufacturing PMI surges to 57.8 in December
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.