Services see a robust growth in February, PMI at 12-year high of 59.4

India's services sector posted robust growth in February with the S&P Services PMI hitting a 12-year high of 59.4.

Favourable demand conditions led to a strong expansion of services activity in February coupled with new business gains.

The expansion has been helped by easing of cost pressures - input prices increased at the slowest in nearly two-and-a-half years.

"The service sector more than regained the growth momentum lost in January, posting the sharpest expansion in output for 12 years as demand resilience and competitive pricing policies underpinned the jointbest upturn in sales over the same period," said Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The expansion of jobs was tepid in February. The survey participants reported no change from January levels.

The vast majority of the participants didn't pass the hike in input costs with only 4% of those surveyed doing so.

Consumer Services remained the best-performing area, registering the fastest increases in new orders among the four monitored sub-sectors.

There was very little change in the overall level of positive sentiment towards the year-ahead outlook for business activity from January and remained below its long-run average.

Some of the companies were concerned about sustaining the sales growth and competitive pressures. Marketing efforts and forecasts of demand resilience underpinned optimism.