Recovery tracker: More retail and recreation visits, power generation rises

Mobility indicators also suggest people are moving about more

Weekly indicators of economic activity showed signs of improvement amid a drop in cases in major metros.  Authorities in both Mumbai and Delhi have said that the worst may be behind the respective cities in terms of daily cases of Covid-19.

Retail and recreation visits were closer to levels last seen before the pandemic took hold, according to mobility data from search engine Google. It tracks how people are moving during the pandemic across different categories of places using anonymised location data.

Power generation perked up last week as winter recedes and temperatures rise in most parts of the country. The power utilities across the country generated 3848 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended January 23, 2022 up 1.5 per cent from 3798 MUs in the previous week, based on reporting day data. The power generation last week was only 0.7 per cent higher than in the corresponding week in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) and up 7.9 per cent from generation in the corresponding week in FY20.

The picture on domestic flights showed 1.22 million passengers compared to 1.18 million in the previous week. The number of flights were lower. There were 11,380 domestic flights compared to 12,270 previously.

There were fewer vehicles registered than in the corresponding week in previous years. People registered 324,966 vehicles for the week ending Sunday. It was between 350,000 and 435,000 for the same period in previous years.

The Indian Railways saw higher growth in the quantity of goods it carried. Growth rose to 7.2 per cent in the latest week compared to 7.1 per cent previously. The amount of money it made from carrying these goods grew 11.7 per cent for the latest week, compared to 8.5 per cent previously.

Traffic congestion rose in major metros, according to data from global location technology firm TomTom International. New Delhi traffic was 51 per cent below 2019 levels at 9am on Monday morning compared to 54 per cent in the previous week. Mumbai traffic was down 58 per cent compared to 65 per cent in the previous week.

Business Standard tracks these indicators as a way of getting a current picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. It gives a sense of the economic effects of restrictions to control the pandemic. Google mobility data comes with a lag. The latest is as of January 27. Traffic congestion data is as of Monday morning 31st January. All other data is as of the week ending January 30, Sunday.