Growth in India’s factory activity slowed to a four-month low in January as COVID-19 curbs hurt new orders and output, while high price pressures weighed on business confidence about the year ahead, a business survey showed. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (INPMI=ECI) , compiled and collected by IHS Markit from Jan. 12-25, fell to 54.0 in January from December’s 55.5. While the latest reading is slightly lower than the 54.6 expected in a Reuters poll of economists, the index was firmly above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for a seventh month. That adds to evidence that the Omicron coronavirus variant will likely exert less of a drag on Asia’s third-largest economy compared with the devastating Delta variant. “The latest PMI results […]