India's services sector recovers some growth momentum it lost in September

Services activity in India recovered some of the growth momentum lost in the prior month with October's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) printing coming at 55.1 as against a six-month low of 54.3 in September.

The indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease.

Favourable demand for services continued to underpin the increase in new business and output at the start of the third quarter of the current financial year.

"Buoyed by the ongoing recovery in new work, service providers again took on extra staff, with an improvement in business confidence also supporting hiring activity. The latest results also showed mild accelerations in inflation rates for input costs and output charges," S&P Global India said in a statement.

The headline index was above the neutral 50.0 threshold for the fifteenth month running and outpaced its long-run average. According to survey participants, sustained increases in new business boosted service output.

At the sub-sector level, consumer services led the growth of business activity, new orders and employment. Finance and insurance came in second place in the rankings for these three measures, while the statement said that transport, information and communication were at the bottom.

"The October results show us that service providers had no trouble securing new work in October, despite lifting their charges again. Hence, the sector remained firmly inside expansion territory as business activity and payroll numbers were raised to support strengthening demand," said Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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