Economic activity has rebounded once again on the back of diminishing inflationary pressures and reviving demand trajectory, as per the economic trends released by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI).
Though global headwinds are still on the high, domestic resilience of the economy has supported the key economic indicators to move on the high road, said Saket Dalmia, President, PHDCCI
Out of the ten lead economic and business indicators of quick economic trends, tracked by PHDCCI, nine have shown an increase in April 2023 as compared to seven out of ten indicators in March 2023, added Dalmia.
E-way bills, goods and services tax (GST) collections and passenger vehicle sales (units) have shown double-digit year-on-year (YoY) growth in April 2023 as compared to April 2022.
Whereas railway freight and total exports show moderate y-o-y growth in April 2023 compared to the corresponding period in the previous year, he mentioned.
India's forex reserves have also increased in April 2023 compared to March 2023, CPI inflation significantly decreased this month, the exchange rate has also appreciated and the stock market has gone up in April 2023.
Notably, passenger vehicle sales (units) registered a high YoY growth of 15 per cent in April 2023, increasing from 2,75,950 in April 2022 to 3,18,686 in April 2023.
E-way bills have shown significant YoY growth of around 12.23 per cent in April 2023, increasing from 75.2 million in April 2022 to 84.4 million in April 2023. GST collections (crore) have also registered high YoY growth of around 11.6 per cent in April 2023, increasing from Rs 1,67,540 crore in April 2022 to Rs 1,87,035 crore in April 2023.
In addition, the forex reserves registered a positive growth of 1.8 per cent in April 2023 i.e. USD 588.78 billion in April 2023 compared to USD 578.5 billion in March 2023.
"CPI inflation has sharply decreased by (-) 17 per cent as the CPI inflation rate is 4.7 per cent in April 2023 as against 5.66 per cent in March 2023," said Dalmia.