Recovery tracker: Fewer flyers as Omicron weighs on weekly indicators

Several metrics show signs of lower activity than the previous week

The latest week saw vehicle registrations drop even as people spent more time at home and took fewer flights.

Economic activity showed continued signs of being affected by the third wave of Covid-19. There were 2,58,089 new cases detected over the previous 24 hours, according to government data released on Monday. Cases have been rising amid the spread of a new variant, Omicron.

Time spent in residences was the highest in nearly six months, showed mobility data from search engine Google. It tracks people’s movements using anonymised location data. It is compared to a base value for the same day of the week in 2020 before the pandemic took hold. Time spent at home was 11.6 per cent higher for Indians as per the latest data, than in the early part of 2020. Workplace visits fell from December’s peak 7.6 per cent gain to 0.6 per cent growth over the baseline period. Retail and recreation visits are down 10 per cent.

Vehicle registration data from the government showed a 17 per cent drop in registrations compared to 2021 for the week ending January 16th. It was down 21 per cent compared to 2019 levels for the same period.

Power generation last week remained higher on a year-on-year basis but was down marginally week-on-week as winter keeps energy demand in check in most parts of the country. The power utilities across the country generated 3599 million units of electricity on average per day during the week ended January 16, 2022 (based on reporting day data) down 2.3 per cent from 3685 MUs in the previous week. The power generation last week was however 5.2 per cent higher than in the  corresponding week in FY21 and 9.4 per cent higher than generation in the corresponding week in FY20.

Monday morning 9am traffic was down in major cities. It was down 60 per cent in New Delhi compared to a 55 per cent drop seen in the previous week, showed data from global location technology firm TomTom International.  Mumbai traffic was down 68 per cent, compared to a 69 per cent drop seen in the previous week.

The number of domestic flights fell to 14,334 compared to 17,775 in the previous week. The number of departing passengers also fell correspondingly.

The Indian Railways showed a higher year-on-year growth in goods carried. It rose to 10.23 per cent from 7.79 per cent in the previous week. Growth in the money it made from carrying the goods (freight revenue) was up 15.26 per cent compared to 11.2 per cent in the previous week.

Business Standard tracks these indicators as a way of getting a more current picture of how the economy is doing. Official macroeconomic data is often released with a lag. Analysts globally have been tracking similar indicators, as different countries imposed restrictions to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Google data is released with a lag. The latest is as of 12th January. All data is as of Sunday 16th January.