India's services PMI recovers from 4-month low with sharpest rise in employment in over 14 years

A PMI score above 50 indicates expansion, while a score below 50 indicates contraction.

"The pick-up in growth stemmed from a rebound in new business gains as firms continued to benefit from the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and ongoing marketing efforts," said Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Lima further noted that "with demand showing considerable resilience, service providers maintained a degree of pricing power and lifted selling prices amid the transfer of cost increases to customers. "While the rate of charge inflation was broadly similar to July, there was a considerably softer upturn in input costs. The latter rose at the weakest pace in close to a year."

The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee had raised the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 percent early in August. The next meeting of the MPC is scheduled for September 28-30, 2022.

(With Agency inputs)