<p>Even as the new strain of the coronavirus and renewed lockdowns threaten to slow down global economic recovery, in India, major growth indicators — manufacturing, steel consumption, vehicle registrations, e-way bill generation, GST collection, petrol consumption and exports — have begun to show an uptick. A few of them have even reached their pre-Covid levels in December, financial ministry data showed.</p>.<p>Some laggards included diesel consumption, cement and natural gas consumption, which have so far not picked up.</p>.<p>The farm sector remained the bright spot with a year-on-year growth of nearly 3% in rabi sowing, accelerating tractor sales, and reservoirs’ live storage at 122% of decadal average last month. The demand for jobs under MGNREGS surged with a year-on-year growth of 57% in December.</p>.<p>E-way bills, a lead indicator of revenue collections and logistics growth, attained a double-digit acceleration of 17.5% after witnessing some moderation in November. Highway toll collections and counts too surpassed their pre-Covid levels. The average daily electronic toll collection stood at Rs 74.31 crore and the number of transactions at 44.65 lakh, as compared to pre-pandemic daily averages of Rs 57.9 crore and 34 lakh respectively, official data showed.</p>.<p>Railway freight traffic recorded a growth of 8.5% in December compared to previous year. Gross revenue from railway passenger bookings crossed Rs 1,432 crore in the first three weeks of December, which is 51% more than the same period last year.</p>.<p>The Indian basket crude oil too increased $51 a barrel on December 31 as against 47.05 a barrel on November 30, signalling upbeat oil market sentiment with increasing economic activity and Covid-19 vaccine prospects.</p>.<p>Non-food credit growth reached 9.4% in the third week of December compared to 5.9% in the same period last month. UPI payment transactions hit an all-time high of Rs 4.16 lakh crore in value and 223 crore in volume terms in December.</p>.<p>India’s foreign exchange reserves climbed to $580.8 billion as on December 25, covering more than 16 months of imports.</p>.<p>On the negative side, power consumption moderated from its double-digit yearly growth in October to 3.5% in November and 5.2% in December. Diesel consumption, which accounts for 40% of total fuel consumption in the country, was 3% lower than a year-ago period. Natural gas, and cement consumption remained tepid, indicating industry and construction have not picked up full swing.</p>
<p>Even as the new strain of the coronavirus and renewed lockdowns threaten to slow down global economic recovery, in India, major growth indicators — manufacturing, steel consumption, vehicle registrations, e-way bill generation, GST collection, petrol consumption and exports — have begun to show an uptick. A few of them have even reached their pre-Covid levels in December, financial ministry data showed.</p>.<p>Some laggards included diesel consumption, cement and natural gas consumption, which have so far not picked up.</p>.<p>The farm sector remained the bright spot with a year-on-year growth of nearly 3% in rabi sowing, accelerating tractor sales, and reservoirs’ live storage at 122% of decadal average last month. The demand for jobs under MGNREGS surged with a year-on-year growth of 57% in December.</p>.<p>E-way bills, a lead indicator of revenue collections and logistics growth, attained a double-digit acceleration of 17.5% after witnessing some moderation in November. Highway toll collections and counts too surpassed their pre-Covid levels. The average daily electronic toll collection stood at Rs 74.31 crore and the number of transactions at 44.65 lakh, as compared to pre-pandemic daily averages of Rs 57.9 crore and 34 lakh respectively, official data showed.</p>.<p>Railway freight traffic recorded a growth of 8.5% in December compared to previous year. Gross revenue from railway passenger bookings crossed Rs 1,432 crore in the first three weeks of December, which is 51% more than the same period last year.</p>.<p>The Indian basket crude oil too increased $51 a barrel on December 31 as against 47.05 a barrel on November 30, signalling upbeat oil market sentiment with increasing economic activity and Covid-19 vaccine prospects.</p>.<p>Non-food credit growth reached 9.4% in the third week of December compared to 5.9% in the same period last month. UPI payment transactions hit an all-time high of Rs 4.16 lakh crore in value and 223 crore in volume terms in December.</p>.<p>India’s foreign exchange reserves climbed to $580.8 billion as on December 25, covering more than 16 months of imports.</p>.<p>On the negative side, power consumption moderated from its double-digit yearly growth in October to 3.5% in November and 5.2% in December. Diesel consumption, which accounts for 40% of total fuel consumption in the country, was 3% lower than a year-ago period. Natural gas, and cement consumption remained tepid, indicating industry and construction have not picked up full swing.</p>
