Indian economy weakens in May as air travel, PV sales falter, shows Mint tracker

Seven indicators were in red, up from five the previous month, while the number of indicators in green fell to six from seven in April. For each indicator, the value in each month is assigned a colour coding (red, amber and green) to denote where it lies relative to the five-year average (red denotes worse, amber denotes it is in line with the average range, and green denotes better).

 

In fact, the number of indicators below their five-year averages was the highest since November last year. The economy has been weakening since April after a strong performance in March.

The consumer economy continues to weigh on overall performance, with domestic air passenger and passenger vehicle sales losing momentum in May, both moving from amber to red. 

The producer economy remains mixed, but the number of indicators below their five-year averages has been rising since last month. From the external sector, labour-intensive exports saw a sharp decline, while the trade balance continued to flash red.

 

However, the ease of living segment—covering retail and core inflation, real rural wage growth, and labour force participation—continued to perform strongly, with all four indicators remaining in the green.

Mint macro tracker, which provides a monthly comprehensive report on the state of the economy, based on trends in 16 high-frequency indicators. The tracker has been running since October 2018.

Methodology note: While calculating the five-year average, data for some indicators for April-May 2020 and April-May 2021 have been removed to eliminate lockdown-induced skews in the trend. However, the five-year averages may still show high figures due to sustained base effect in several indicators in 2021 and 2022.

Monthly standings will get updated retrospectively as more data comes in.

For inflation, the red/green coding is reversed.