Interim Budget to US Fed: Key developments for this week
The key highlights of this week are going to be the Interim budget, the US Federal policy decision and quarterly earnings.
India’s service sector continued to grow during February as positive demand trends supported sales and business activity, according to a recent survey.
The latest HSBC PMI showed the second-weakest cost pressures in the sector since August 2020 and the softest increase in selling charges for two years. The growth rates also slowed since January, though remained historically substantial.
In February, the seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services Business Activity Index registered 60.6, down from 61.8 in January.
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The headline index was comfortably above the neutral mark of 50.0 and signalled a sharp rate of expansion that was well above the series history.
Further, the data showed that business activity increased across all parts of the service sector. Finance and Insurance saw the strongest pace of growth by a considerable margin, with the slowest rise registered in Real Estate & Business Services.
For the month of February, the data highlighted an upturn in demand across the service sector. It witnessed inflows of new business expanding for the thirty-first month running.
The data said the new business from abroad placed with services firms in India rose for the thirteenth successive month. Survey participants reported gains from Australia, Asia, Europe, the Americas and UAE.
International sales expanded at a solid rate that was among the best in the nine-and-ahalf-year series history, the data said.
Due to the manufacturing production and services activity increasing during February, there was a further upturn in private sector output.
The HSBC India Composite PMI Output Index slipped from a six-month high of 61.2 in January to 60.6, indicating a softer but sharp rate of expansion.
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