Recovery tracker: Workplace visits drop, power generation growth slows

Freight growth and traffic congestion show signs of improvement

The surge in workplace visits following the end of the third wave appears to have come down, though workplace visits remain higher than before.

Workplace visits were 11.9 per cent higher in the latest mobility data from search engine Google. It tracks visits to various categories of places using anonymised location data. Data is compared to a baseline value from early 2020 before the pandemic took hold. The number is down from a recent high of 14.9 per cent at the end of February. Retail and recreation visits inched higher.

Electricity generation grew further last week but gains were muted compared to the previous weeks. Power utilities across the country generated 4,132 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended March 6 (based on reporting day data) up just 2.6 per cent from 4,090 MUs during the corresponding week in FY21. Generation was up 14.8 per cent over the corresponding week in FY20 and one per cent higher on a week-on-week basis.

The Indian Railways showed higher growth in the quantity of goods it carried. It was up 7.3 per cent in the latest week compared to 6.9 per cent previously. The money it made from carrying the goods, called freight revenue, was up 12.1 per cent compared to 10.3 per cent growth in the previous week.

Traffic congestion improved in major cities. On Monday morning, at about 9 a.m., New Delhi traffic was 32 per cent lower than 2019 levels, showed data from global location technology firm TomTom International. It was down 34 per cent in the previous week. Mumbai traffic is down 46 per cent compared to the previous week’s 50 per cent figure .

Air traffic seemed to show signs of picking up. The number of flights and passengers show a rising trend.

Vehicle registrations were closer to 2019 levels than in the previous week. The gap was 15.6 per cent in the latest week compared to 24.6 per cent in the previous one. There were 348,064 vehicles registered during the latest week.

Business Standard tracks these indicators as a way of getting a weekly picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. The Google data is as of 3rd March. Traffic congestion is for Monday, March 7. All other data is as of Sunday, March 6.