Ten of the 19 services sub-sectors recorded double-digit growth in July, up from eight in June, while 17 sub-sectors expanded, down from 18 in the preceding month, as repair services joined air transport in contraction, according to the fourth print of the trial Index of Services Production (ISP), released by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday.
Eleven sub-sectors recorded a higher year-on-year growth rate in July than in June. Administrative and support services recorded the fastest growth, accelerating to 20.9 per cent from 14.4 per cent in June.
Retail trade grew 18.5 per cent, followed by real estate at 14.4 per cent, accommodation and food at 12.6 per cent, banking at 12.3 per cent, telecommunications at 11 per cent, professional, scientific and technical services, including research and development, at 10.4 per cent, and information and broadcasting at 10 per cent. Real estate, which led in June, slowed to 14.4 per cent from 24.7 per cent.
Warehousing and support activities for transportation dropped out of the double-digit group, slowing to 9.8 per cent from 11.8 per cent. Most transport segments picked up, except for aviation and warehousing. Postal and courier services quickened to 8.7 per cent from 5 per cent, while water transport rose to 7.7 per cent from 6.9 per cent. Railway transport growth more than doubled to 7.5 per cent from 3.3 per cent.
Data also revealed that administrative and support services saw the biggest pickup in growth, accelerating by 6.5 percentage points (pp). On the other hand, the sharpest deceleration came in repair services, where growth fell 12.5 pp, swinging to a 5 per cent contraction from 7.5 per cent growth in June.
Air transport contracted for a fourth consecutive month, and the decline widened to 8.4 per cent from 6 per cent in June.
A comparison of the July figures with the first release for April shows that 13 of the 19 sub-sectors recorded a deterioration in their performance over the period. The six that did not see a similar decrease were water transport, railway transport, air transport, postal and courier, information and broadcasting, and banking.
In index terms, accommodation and food stood highest at 144, followed by retail trade at 140, administrative and support services at 134.5, arts, entertainment and recreation at 107, railway transport at 106.1, and air transport at 87.8.
The trial ISP, with 2024-25 as the base year, accounts for nearly 60 per cent of India’s services output. It is the country’s first high-frequency measure of monthly activity in the sector, filling a long-standing gap alongside the Index of Industrial Production.
