India to launch headline services output index within months: Govt

The proposed index will provide India's first official monthly measure of output across the services sector, complementing existing manufacturing indicators

India plans to roll out a headline Index of Services Production within months, the country's statistics ​secretary said, giving investors a single monthly gauge ​of output in the country's dominant services sector for the first ‌time.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released trial monthly indices for 19 service sub-sectors covering about 60 per cent of the formal services economy on Tuesday, but did not publish a composite headline measure.

Unlike manufacturing, which is tracked through the monthly Index of Industrial Production and surveys such as the PMI, India has no official monthly gauge for output across its dominant services sector.

 

"We are hoping that within the next few months we should be able to bring ‌out a headline number also, with or without additional sectors," Statistics Secretary Saurabh Garg said in an interview late on Thursday.

The ministry is assessing whether to include additional sectors such as health and education before launching the composite index, although the timeline will depend on the availability of reliable data, Garg said.

He said the headline index could initially ​be launched using the existing 19 sectors,  while work continues to expand coverage beyond ‌the current 60 per cent of the formal services economy.

The trial data showed broad-based growth in April, with 14 of the 19 sub-sectors ​posting ‌double-digit annual gains, led by accommodation and food services, retail trade and administrative ‌services. Air transport contracted, while railway transport was broadly flat.

Garg said the monthly services index, together with labour, industrial and infrastructure indicators, ‌would ​strengthen the government's ability ​to assess economic activity in real time and improve the compilation of quarterly national accounts.

"I am sure it will help ‌in improving the ​robustness of the GDP number."