Indian economy on the ventilator after the second wave of Covid-19
India is slowly recovering from the second wave of covid-19 that hit the country harder than the first wave. Not only the health sector Covid-19 has also deeply impacted the economy of the country. The second wave struck like a lightning on the recovering economy after the unfortunate first wave of the pandemic.
The inevitable lockdowns majorly impacted every sector of the economy and still feeling the stress of the ongoing second wave of the deadly pandemic.
Sky-high Unemployment
According to the data published by scroll & Bloomberg Quint, one of the biggest impacts of the lockdown restrictions led to the rise in the unemployment rate in the country. The data mentioned that in April 2020, unemployment in India spiked to 23%. However, as the country reopened, the job market started recovering and by February 2020, the unemployment rate fell to 6.9%. The crisis is being felt most in urban parts of the country, where joblessness is above 10%.
Sinking service sector
The data published by Bloomberg mentioned that the Indian service sector shrank fastest in 11 months in June as the PMI reading slipped to 41.2 which was 46.4 in May.
Manufacturing PMI also fell from 50.8 to 48.1 in June. Despite, the easing of the lockdown the business sector is still struggling.
The data issued by Nomura’s India Business Resumption Index reflects that the business activity in India has taken a beating.
“Both the pandemic situation and its impact on growth continue to evolve as a higher rise in cases is increasing public and private proclivities towards restricted mobility,” Nomura’s report said.