Mint tracker: October sees slight deterioration in Indian economy’s performance

The tracker provides a monthly comprehensive report on the state of the economy based on trends in 16 high-frequency indicators. Each indicator's value is assigned a colour code (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.

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Six indicators were in red, up from five in September, while the number of indicators in green remained at seven.

However, the situation is better than it was two months ago when eight indicators were below their five-year averages.

The weakness in the consumer segment eased, with growth in tractor sales pulling it out of the amber to the green zone. However, PV sales continued to be a laggard. 

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The producer segment also witnessed a mixed trend, with rail freight traffic in the red. From the external sector, labour-intensive exports growth saw a steep rise, but trade balance continued to flash red.

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.