Recovery tracker: Drop in workplace attendance, traffic congestion

Freight data shows slower growth

There was a perceptible slowdown in key weekly economic indicators amid rising cases of Covid-19.

India detected 1,79,723 cases in 24 hours, shows government data on January 10. Daily cases have gone up multifold in the last ten days as the country battles a new Covid-19 variant Omicron.

Growth in workplace visits dropped to 2.4 per cent compared to times before the pandemic took hold. Growth had touched 7.6 per cent towards the end of December, shows mobility data from search engine Google. It uses anonymised location data to track how people are moving during the pandemic. Retail and recreation visits also dropped.

There were fewer vehicles on the road. Traffic congestion was down 55 per cent in New Delhi and 69 per cent in Mumbai, shows data from global location technology firm TomTom International. The data is for 9am on Monday morning.

Business Standard also tracks emissions of nitrogen dioxide. It comes from industrial activity and vehicles. Levels go up during periods of higher activity and drop when activity is curtailed as was seen in the national lockdown during 2020. Delhi emissions were 19 per cent below 2019 levels. Mumbai emissions remained muted.

Growth in Indian Railway numbers was also affected. Growth in the quantity of goods carried dropped to 7.8 per cent from 9.3 per cent in the previous week. The money that the Indian Railways makes from carrying these goods, called freight revenue, grew 11.2 per cent compared to 12.9 per cent in the previous week.

Power generation last week was higher on a year-on-year basis but was down marginally week-on-week as low temperatures in major parts of the country reduced energy demand. Based on reporting day data, power utilities across the country generated 3685 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended January 9, 2022 down 0.3 per cent from 3697 MUs in the previous week. The power generation last week was however 3.1 per cent higher than in the corresponding week in FY21 and 6.1 per cent higher than generation in the corresponding week in FY20.

The weekly economic indicators help provide a current picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators. It gives a more immediate sense of the situation on the ground as different countries impose restrictions which have economic effects. Google data is released with a lag. All other data is as of Sunday 9th January unless stated otherwise.