India’s manufacturing activity expanded the fastest in five months in March, buoyed by a sharp uptick in production and new orders. The Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 52.5 in March, up from 50.7 in February and the highest since demonetisation in November last year. Firms hired additional employees to cope with greater workloads. Incoming new orders expanded at a stronger pace, leading to quicker increases in production and input purchasing. Impressive car sales in March and for 2016-17 showed Indian economy had bounced back sharply from the demonetisation disruption. Largely reflecting higher commodity prices, average input costs increased again. However, the rate of inflation slowed to the weakest in four months and was below the long run survey average. The statistics office will share retail inflation numbers for March on April 12 while the next monetary policy statement is scheduled for April 7.

(Economic Times)