With a sharp rise in new work orders, service sector activity is estimated to have expanded at its sharpest pace since last September. The Nikkei India Services PMI Business Activity Index rose to an eight-month high of 53.1 in June. It stood at 52.2 in May.
A reading above 50 indicates an expansion while anything below that mark denotes a contraction in activities.
The reading for the April-June quarter averaged at 51.8 and is the highest quarterly figure since the second quarter of 2016.
Despite manufacturing activities dipping to a four-month low, the Nikkei India Composite PMI Output Index also rose to an eight-month high of 52.7 in June, from 52.5 in May.
“Business conditions in India’s service sector continued to improve in June as a solid and accelerated upturn in new work resulted in a faster increase in activity,” Nikkei said in a release.
According to the survey, the best-performing service sub-sector in June was financial intermediation.
Activity and incoming new work rose in four out of the six broad categories covered by the survey, with the exceptions being hotels and restaurants and renting and business activities.
“Growth of service sector activity and inflows of new business picked up as better demand conditions and marketing efforts bore fruit… This suggests GDP growth is likely to rebound from the sharp slowdown noted in the first three months of 2017,” said Pollyanna De Lima, economist at IHS Markit, and the report’s author.