By Siddhi Nawar & Samriddhi Singh Mahar

India’s macroeconomic performance in April 2025 reflected resilience amid global uncertainties. The Sensex rose by 2,827 points and the Nifty by 814.85 points, a 3.46% monthly gain, extending March’s strong rally. Foreign portfolio investors infused Rs. 18,409 crore, mainly into financial, consumer, and telecom sectors.

Investor sentiment was lifted mid-month by a pause in U.S. tariffs, though late-April geopolitical tensions with Pakistan caused some volatility. Meanwhile, JP Morgan ranked India highest globally in PMI performance, underscoring strong momentum in both manufacturing and services.

Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI)India’s manufacturing sector remained strong in April, with the HSBC Manufacturing PMI inching up to 58.2 from 58.1 in March, its best reading in ten months, driven by steady gains in output, new orders, hiring, and input buying.

The Services PMI also rose slightly to 58.7 from 58.5, indicating sustained growth well above the long-term average of 54.2.

Despite easing input cost inflation (a six-month low), firms faced capacity pressures, with rising backlogs and faster increases in selling prices.

(Source: S&P Global, HSBC)InflationIndia’s retail inflation (CPI) eased to 3.16% in April 2025 from 3.34% in March, the lowest since July 2019. Food inflation dropped sharply to 1.78%, the lowest since October 2021, driven by falling prices of vegetables, pulses, fruits, cereals, and personal care items.

Both rural and urban inflation declined, with rural areas seeing a steeper fall. Rural headline inflation fell to 2.92% (from 3.25%) and rural food inflation to 1.85% (from 2.82%).

Wholesale inflation (WPI) also dropped sharply to 0.85% in April from 2.05% in March, mainly due to declines in fuel & power and primary articles. Crude petroleum, natural gas, and non-food articles saw significant price drops, while food articles and minerals rose slightly.

(Source: Ministry of Commerce & Industry)GSTIndia's GST collections hit a record high of Rs. 2.37 lakh crore in April, up 12.6% year-on-year, according to government data. This surpasses the previous high of Rs. 2.10 lakh crore in April 2024. March 2025 collections stood at Rs. 1.96 lakh crore, up 9.9% YoY.

Domestic GST revenue rose 10.7% to Rs. 1.9 lakh crore, while collections from imports surged 20.8% to Rs. 46,913 crore. Refunds issued in April jumped 48.3% to Rs. 27,341 crore.

(Source: GST Collections Data)UPIIndia’s daily UPI transactions rose to 596 million in April, up from 590 million in March, according to NPCI data. However, transaction value dipped slightly to Rs. 24 lakh crore from Rs. 24.8 lakh crore, marking the 12th straight month above Rs. 20 lakh crore. Year-on-year, transaction volume grew 50.7%, while value increased 21.9%.

IIPIndia’s industrial output saw slight relief in March with a 3% growth output, compared to February’s 6-month low growth output of 2.9%.

Mining saw a modest growth output of 0.4%, a sharp drop from the previous month’s 1.6%.

Manufacturing output was 3% this month, slightly higher than the previous month’s 2.9% growth output, while electricity growth output expanded to 6.3% from the previous month’s 3.6%.

Based on the use-based classification, the top three contributors to this growth were infrastructure and construction goods, which saw a strong rise of 8.8%, followed by primary goods at 3.1%, and consumer durables at 6.6%. However, consumer non-durables registered a decline of 4.7% during the same period.

(Source: National Statistics Organisation)FII & DII
In April 2025, FPIs infused Rs 2,735.02 crores, while DIIs pumped in Rs 28,228.45 crores into the markets.

By 30th April, the Nifty 50 closed at 24,334.20 and the BSE Sensex at 80,242.24, indicating continued momentum supported by strong domestic institutional buying.

(Source: NSDL, BSE & NSE)Trade Deficit
In April, India’s total exports widened by USD 73.80 billion, with a 12.7% y-o-y growth. The total imports were USD 82.45 billion, with a positive y-o-y growth of 15.72%.

The trade deficit for April is - USD 8.65 billion, which is nearly 1.3x more than the previous month’s trade deficit of - USD 3.63 billion.

Services exports stood at USD 35.31 billion and imports were recorded to be USD 17.54 billion.

Merchandise imports marginally increased from March’s 3 year low, with April seeing imports amounting to USD 64.91billion and exports amounting to USD 38.49 billion.

(Source: Ministry of Commerce & Industry)Unemployment
The government has released its first monthly employment bulletin, which is provided by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, being the first ever monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS).

In April 2025, the unemployment rate among individuals aged 15 years and above was 5.1 percent. The male unemployment rate was slightly higher at 5.2 percent, compared to 5.0 percent for females.

The Labour Force Participation Rate stood at 55.6 percent nationwide. Rural areas recorded a rate of 58.0 percent, while urban areas stood at 50.7 percent. Among men, the rate was 79.0 percent in rural areas and 75.3 percent in urban areas. For women, the rural participation rate was 38.2 percent.

The Worker Population Ratio was 52.8 percent at the national level, with 55.4 percent in rural areas and 47.4 percent in urban areas. Among women, the ratio was 36.8 percent in rural areas, 23.5 percent in urban areas, and 32.5 percent overall.