Consumer Prices (Apr.) & Industrial Production (Mar.)

As a result of the Statistics Office being only partly operational due to India’s nationwide lockdown, the headline CPI data for April weren’t published as originally scheduled today. But the industrial output data for March were released and showed growth plummeting from +4.5% y/y in February to -16.7% y/y. That was the worst monthly reading on record. But it covers only a portion of the economic impact of India’s nationwide lockdown, which only came into force on 24^th Timelier indicators including the manufacturing PMI, electricity consumption and vehicle production suggest that worse will follow in April and May.