CareEdge Economic Meter Score Declines To A 7-month low

In January 2022, the CareEdge Economic Meter (CEM) score declined to a 7-month low of 5.10 owing to Omicron led disruption in economic activities.

CareEdge Economic Meter tracks the state of the economy based on 14 high frequency indicators. Each of these indicators reflect a particular aspect of economic activity in areas such as production, consumption, investment, and foreign trade. The changes are tracked and compared over the preceding periods both in terms of single month and cumulative basis.

"Surge in nation-wide covid cases necessitated reintroduction of restrictions in January which has led to a broad-based slowdown across different segments of the economy. As a result, nine out of fourteen indicators that goes into calculation of CEM contracted sequentially," the CareEdge report says.

The moderation according to the report came despite a stellar GST collection during the month can partly be attributed to the various rate rationalisation measures undertaken by the GST council to correct inverted duty structure.

"Power consumption, a proxy for overall economic activity registered a modest sequential growth of 2.2% in January compared with a growth of 9.9% M-o-M during the previous month. Auto sector painted a mixed picture with registration for passenger vehicle expanding sequentially, whereas two-wheelers saw a decline. In an encouraging note, the CMIE survey-based unemployment rate fell to a 10-month low level of 6.6% in January 2022. This was led by a significant dip in rural unemployment," CareEdge has said.