<div>Growth in services activity picked up pace in September as order books filled up at a faster rate, a business survey showed on Tuesday (7 October).<br /><br />The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, rose to 51.6 in September from 50.6 in August, reversing a slowdown seen in the previous two months.<br /><br />A reading above 50 signifies growth while anything below denotes contraction.<br /><br />The new business sub-index climbed to 52.4 from 51.9, signalling robust demand.<br /><br />"Service sector activity bottomed out in September thanks to stronger new business flows," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at survey sponsor HSBC.<br /><br />In what might also give some respite to an economy that has long struggled with high inflation, the sub-index measuring output price growth fell to a near four-year low.<br /><br />India's annual consumer price inflation eased in August to 7.80 per cent from 7.96 per cent in July. Wholesale prices also rose at a slower clip during that month.<br /><br />But the Reserve Bank of India doesn't appear to be in a hurry to ease monetary policy and hinted last week that it won't do so until it is confident that consumer inflation can be reduced to a target of 6 percent by January 2016.<br /><br />Activity in the private sector has expanded steadily since May, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a landslide mandate that created a wave of optimism over India's economic prospects.<br /><br />But the lack of sweeping reforms by Modi's government so far has taken the sheen off those hopes.<br /><br />The survey showed firms' confidence regarding future business grew at the slowest pace in a year last month.<br /><br />"A pick up in reform effort is sorely needed to put growth on a firmer footing and address supply side risks to inflation," Neumann said.<br /><br />(Agencies)</div>
