India’s eight key infrastructure industries contracted for the seventh straight month at 0.8% in September, pointing to uneven recovery since the nationwide lockdown was lifted in June. Only coal (21.2%), steel (0.9%) and electricity (3.7%) saw positive growth.
Output at infrastructure industries shrank 8.5% in August from a year ago and was slightly worse than the revised 8% decline in July. The sector, which makes up 40% of the industrial production index, had contracted by a record 37.9% in April.
The month has seen a revival in demand and business activity, helping drive the South Asian nation toward recovery from the pandemic-induced slump.
Activity in India’s dominant services sector continued to recover, with the main index rising to 49.8 in September from 41.8 in August. While that’s a marked improvement from April’s record low of 5.4, a number below 50 suggests it’s still in contraction territory and will probably be a drag on overall growth in the July-September quarter.
