 "An employee sets a table inside a restaurant at the Crown Plaza hotel, run by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). Photo: Reuters")
The services sector contracted for the second month in a row in December as cash crunch due to demonetisation took its toll on the biggest part of India’s economy.
With manufacturing also declining in December and its growth decelerating in the previous two months, the combined activities in the two sectors fell in these two months, signalling that GDP growth in the third quarter may come down. The combined activities declined the steepest in three years. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 46.8 in December, compared to 46.7 in November.
A reading below 50 shows contraction and the
