Economy on road to recovery? Some sectors showing signs of revival, suggests report

Some sections of the economy have shown recovery after the Centre eased restrictions through Unlock 1.0. India has been under lockdown since March 25 and the current phase – Lockdown 5.0 has been extended till June 30 – with plans to gradually ease more restrictions.

For one, railway freight traffic data showed an increase of 4.4 percent for goods transportation – even while earning are still down 8.2 percent, Business Standard reported.

The paper considered six indicators – pollution levels, traffic, power, railway freight, Google and internet download speeds – as a means of tracking economic activity post-lockdown as official macro-economic data is often released with a lag and on a quarterly or monthly basis, it said.

It used Google data (which is tracked anonymously), to determine that workplace visits have increased – down only 38.7 percent compared to pre-coronavirus levels, and much better than the 65.9 percent plunge in activity seen during the lockdown. Apart from offices, pharmacies and groceries also witnessed increased visits.