Recovery tracker: Power generation, freight numbers up post-Diwali

Traffic congestion also saw an uptick compared to the previous week

Many key weekly indicators of economic activity trended upwards after the Diwali holidays in the first week of November.

The growth in the quantity of goods that the Indian Railways carried was 6.1 per cent for the latest week, compared to 4 per cent growth seen previously. The growth in revenue that the Indian Railways earned from carrying goods rose to 17.7 per cent, compared to 13.4 per cent seen in the previous week. The government puts out year-on-year weekly growth figures for both (see chart 1).
 

Power generation showed a small uptick last week (based on reporting day data) after the post-Diwali slump in the week before. The power utilities across the country generated 3,458 million units (MUs) of electricity 

on average per day during the week ended November 14, 2021, up 5 per cent from 3,293 MUs a week ago. It was 1.6 per cent higher than the corresponding week in 2020 and 8.5 per cent higher than the generation in the corresponding week in 2019 (see chart 2).

Mumbai traffic was down 40 per cent in the latest week compared to 2019 levels, shows data from global location technology firm TomTom International. It was down 44 per cent in the previous week. New Delhi traffic was down 24 per cent compared to 34 per cent previously (see chart 3).

Business Standard also tracks emissions of nitrogen dioxide. It comes from industrial activity and vehicles. A drop can be indicative of lower activity and a surge might point to the reverse. Delhi emissions were 17.6 per cent above 2019 levels. This is similar to levels seen in the previous week. Mumbai emissions were muted (see charts 4, 5).

Workplace visits fell, according to anonymised location data that search engine Google uses to track people’s visits to various categories of places. Workplace visits are now around 20 per cent below levels seen before the pandemic took hold. Retail and recreation visits, as well as grocery and pharmacy ones, all showed a decline (see chart 6).

Business Standard tracks these indicators to get 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 as different countries went into lockdown to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Google mobility data is released with a lag. The latest is as of November 11. All other data is as of Sunday, November 14.