India manufacturing activity improves, PMI rises to 51.2 in November

India's manufacturing activity has made a marginal improvement during the month of November, as consumer goods provided the main impetus to overall growth and the intermediate goods category returned to expansion territory.

As per the survey report, the Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a composite single-figure indicator of manufacturing performance, surged to 51.2 in November from 50.6 in October.

The survey report also noted that although business conditions in the Indian manufacturing sector improved in November, the upturn remained subdued compared to earlier in 2019 and the survey history. Besides, subdued sales prevented hiring in November, with payroll numbers declining for the first time in 20 months. Besides, the report showed that there were only marginal increases in both input costs and output charges in the reported month.

According to the report, the business sentiment strengthened in November and it expects advertising efforts and product diversification to support the output growth in the year ahead. However, the Future Output Index was well below its average, as a number of firms were concerned about the state of the economy.