It highlighted weak demand due to higher inflation and pandemic scarring as the underlying recovery remains uneven with sluggish services and consumption even prior to the third wave. Google workplace and retail & recreation mobility rose by 1.4pp and 6 pp, respectively, from the prior week, near record highs. The Apple driving index rose by 11.3pp, the labour participation rate was stable at 40.1%, and power demand rose by 0.4% week-on-week after a 1.5% fall, it said. Conventional monthly data until January suggest the third wave had a mild impact on demand, while the supply side remained unscathed.“This imbalance should correct in February,” Nomura said, adding that this is evidenced by the rapid rise across indicators – NIBRI, railway passenger and freight revenues, flight departures and stable GST E-way billsAs per Nomura’s weekly report, while the third wave appears to be over, growth concerns are not. However, the underlying recovery remains uneven, with services and consumption sectors sluggish, even prior to the third wave,” Nomura said. This reflects weak rural demand due to higher inflation and pandemic scarring, while industrial segments face supply-side constraints, according to the report. Still, with higher public capex, services normalisation and easy financial conditions as near-term tailwinds, we expect GDP growth of 8.7% in FY22 and 7.8% in FY23, Nomura said. In January 2021, rate of inflation based on CPI-AL and CPI-RL stood at 2.17 per cent and 2.35 per cent, a labour ministry statement said. Food inflation for farm workers stood at 4.15 per cent and for rural labourers at 4.33 per cent in January 2022 compared to 2.99 per cent and 3.17 per cent, respectively in the previous month. In the year-ago period, food inflation was 1.02 per cent and 1.22 per cent respectively. The all-India CPI-AL and CPI-RL numbers in January 2022 decreased by 2 points and 1 point to stand at 1,095 and 1,105 points, respectively as compared to that in December 2021.Major contribution towards the fall in general index of agricultural labourers and rural labourers came from food group to the extent of 4.65 points and 4.17 points, respectively mainly due to decrease in prices of pulses, mustard-oil, fish-fresh, sugar, gur, onion, vegetables & fruits, etc. The fall or rise in index varied from state to state. In case of agricultural labourers, the index recorded a decrease of 1 to 9 points in 11 states and an increase of 1 to 8 points in 9 states. Tamil Nadu with 1,292 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with 869 points stood at the bottom, it stated. In case of rural labourers, it recorded a decrease of 1 to 9 points in 10 states and an increase of 2 to 8 points in 8 states while it remained stationary for Tamil Nadu with 1,278 points topped the index table whereas Himachal Pradesh with 917 points stood at the bottom, it stated Pradesh and Odisha. The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by USD 1.763 billion to USD 630.19 billion in the week ended on February 11, the RBI data showed. In the previous week ended February 4, the reserves had risen by USD 2.198 billion to USD 631.953 billion. It touched a lifetime high of USD 642.453 billion in the week ended on September 3, 2021. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) is likely to grow at 5.8 per cent in the third quarter of fiscal 2022, according to an SBI's research report- Ecowrap.The country's economy expanded by 8.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2021-22, to cross pre-pandemic levels. However, the GDP growth in July-September period was slower than the 20.1 per cent expansion in the previous quarter. The report further said that given the significant success of vaccination in the third wave in rural pockets, the livelihood loans can be the silver bullet catapulting the broader economy to unprecedented highs
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