India climbed five spots to attain the third position among key emerging markets in January, the latest update to Mint’s emerging markets tracker shows. Rising exports, falling inflation, and greater manufacturing activity boosted India’s rank in January although it still remains a few notches below China.
Merchandise exports rose 6.2% in January from a year earlier to $27.45 billion, the second consecutive month of export growth. The rise in India’s exports are in line with trends globally, wrote analysts from Nomura in a note dated 2 February based on the provisional export numbers. While volumes improved, exports also benefited from rising commodity and input prices globally. Indonesia and Brazil, the other two countries to have reported their export figures in January, also recorded a growth of 12.2% and 2.2%, respectively, in their merchandise exports.
On account of faster rise in output, sales, and exports, India’s manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers’ index) reached a 3-month high of 57.7, the best figure among emerging market peers.
It was closely followed by Brazil, which has been leading the league table on this count for the past six months. Despite the fillip in manufacturing activity, jobs in the sector further declined in January. However, the pace of contraction was the slowest in the last ten months.
The decline in headline inflation has also helped India rise up the ladder. A decline in food inflation to 1.9% brought headline inflation down to 4% even though core inflation still remains sticky.
Source :Live Mint
