India’s business activity growth slowed down to a nine-month low in September, according to a survey released on Monday.

The slowdown was attributed to a slight cooling in demand and an uptick in costs. Despite this, the service sector registered the fastest job growth in two years.

HSBC’s flash India Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, slipped to 59.3 in September from August’s final reading of 60.7.

However, overall activity remained strong, taking the expansionary streak to over three years.

The manufacturing and services sectors exhibited similar trends, with growth rates remaining well above the long-term average.

The dominant services industry’s index fell to 58.9 in September from 60.9 in August, its lowest since November, while the manufacturing index decreased to an eight-month low of 56.7 from 57.5.

“Growth was affected by a softer rise in new business and orders for both domestic and overseas markets,” said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC. “Manufacturing output expansion remained largely unchanged from August.”

Despite a slight increase in input costs, companies refrained from fully passing on the higher costs to customers, resulting in muted price charges compared with the previous month.