Buoyed by stronger demand conditions and greater sales, manufacturers increased production at the second-quickest pace since October 2016.

Heated demand exerted upward pressure on capacities, as highlighted by a renewed increase in outstanding business. At the same time, manufacturers utilised their stocks to fulfil orders, with holdings of finished goods down for the sixteenth month in a row during November.

Conversely, pre-production inventories rose as companies stepped up input buying. The upturn in quantities of purchases was the most pronounced in ten months, while stocks of purchases also

increased at a quicker pace. Goods producers created jobs in November. The increase in employment softened slightly since October, but was nonetheless among the fastest seen in six years.

Firms felt confident to hike their charges, amid an improved demand environment, despite cost inflation easing to a seven-month low in November. Exactly 7% of companies noted greater expenses, citing higher chemical, energy, metal, plastic and textile prices. The remaining firms reported no change in input prices since October.

Business sentiment improved from October's 20-month low, with Indian manufacturers forecasting better market conditions in the coming 12 months. Improved advertising campaigns was also a factor leading to predictions that production will expand in the year ahead.

Finally, there was broadly no change in suppliers' delivery times in November, as signalled by the respective index recording only fractionally below the 50.0 neutral mark.

Commenting on the Indian Manufacturing PMI survey data, Pollyanna De Lima, Principal Economist at IHS Markit and author of the report, said: "The Indian manufacturing sector continued to recover from ground lost in August, with November seeing the headline PMI climb to an 11-month high. The relatively weak demand environment seen earlier in the year showed signs of abating, with clients unfazed by another round of increases in output prices and placing more orders regardless. Correspondingly, goods producers rebuilt raw material stocks in order to guard against possible delivery delays and fulfil contracts.

"Manufacturers further drew down their finished goods stocks to meet demand. This, coupled with improved business sentiment, should ensure that production continues to rise at a robust clip as we head towards 2019. Signs of rising confidence in the upturn were also provided by the trend for employment, which continued to grow at one of the quickest rates seen in six years. Supply-chain pressures remained weak, however, which supported a softer rise in input prices."

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Sources: Nikkei, IHS Markit.