INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The business expectations index, which measures optimism, eased from the previous month.Activity in India's dominant services sector eased
to a four-month low in September on dwindling demand, while intensifying price pressures pointed to a bumpy road ahead, a private survey
showed on Thursday.The Nikkei/IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers' Index fell to 50.9 last month from 51.5 in August, and held just
above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction.Although services firms reported the strongest quarterly performance in two years
during the three months through to September, worries over the pace of rising costs continued to weigh on business activity.A sub-index
tracking new business orders - a measure of demand - declined to a seven-month low of 50.1 in September from 51.0 in August."Growth of
India's services economy spluttered during September amid reports of faltering demand for services," said Paul Smith, economics director at
IHS Markit, in a news release.Despite a pick-up in factory activity, sluggish demand growth for services meant the India composite PMI fell
to a four-month low of 51.6.In September, input costs for services firms rose at the quickest pace since November, which forced them to pass
on some of that burden to customers
That resulted in output prices rising at the fastest pace in five months.Firms, which were hobbled by a lack of demand, reported that market
conditions were underwhelming at a time of rising costs.The business expectations index, which measures optimism, eased from the previous
month though it remained in solidly positive territory.The rising input costs - also a highlight in a separate manufacturing survey earlier
this week - along with the rupee's recent slump to record lows backed the case for another rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on
Friday.A Reuters poll forecast the RBI to hike its repo rate to 6.75 percent this week, which would be its third this year, after it lifted
staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
