Manufacturing PMI drops to 50.8 in May from 55.5 the previous month

India's manufacturing activity declined in May compared to April but indicated improvement in business conditions, data released by analytics firm IHS Markit showed on Tuesday.

The seasonally adjusted Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for manufacturing stood at 50.8 in May, down from 55.5 in April and moving closer to the no-change mark of 50.0. A figure above 50 indicates expansion, while a sub-50 one signals contraction.

Another set of important data released by the government on Monday showed India’s economy expanded faster than expected in the previous quarter before a resurgent coronavirus pandemic unleashed a new wave of challenges.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.6 per cent from a year earlier in the three months ended March, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said on Monday. That was faster than the 1 per cent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists.