Manufacturing activity in India continued to weaken in October, with factory orders and production rising at the weakest rates in two years, according to a recent monthly survey by IHS Markit India, which found job creation softened to a six-month low, while companies were reluctant to hold excess stock and lowered input buying in response. The headline seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to a two-year low of 50.6 in October from 51.4 in September, implying only a marginal improvement in the health of the manufacturing industry, a news agency reported. In PMI parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction. “Weakening demand had a domino effect in the manufacturing industry, knocking down rates of increase in production, employment and business sentiment,” said Pollyanna De Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit. With quantities of purchases contracting for the third month in a row, Lima pointed out that input costs fell for the first time in over four years during October.
