India's weekly outlook: infrastructure output, PMI trends and foreign exchange reserves

This week’s economic calendar in India centers on three key releases. On September 21, the August infrastructure output figures will be disclosed, revealing a 5.4% growth in the nine core sectors for July, up from 3.2% a year earlier but slower than June’s 6% pace, with notable gains in coal, refinery products, cement, electricity and iron ore. The core sector index now uses a 2022-23 base year and includes iron ore as a ninth sector.

HSBC’s PMI flash for manufacturing and services will follow on September 23, showing the manufacturing index at 52.8 - the lowest since August 2021 but still above the expansion threshold - and the services index at 54.1, the second-weakest reading since March 2022. Finally, the RBI will report foreign exchange reserves for the week ended September 18 on September 25, indicating a drop of $4.924 billion to $780.782 billion, with foreign currency assets falling by $2.372 billion to $645.796 billion and gold reserves decreasing by $2.591 billion to $111.225 billion, while SDR holdings rose slightly.