Sentence Correction

Along with the drop in producer prices announced yesterday, the strong retail sales figures released today seem like it is indicative that the economy, although growing slowly, is not nearing recession.

a) like it is indicative that
b) as if to indicate
c) to indicate that
d) indicative of
e) like an indication of

OA C
I have onbe doubht with the explanation given in OG. for option D. It says "the adjective indicative of cannot introduce a clause"
How is indicative of an adjective

Indicative is used as an adjective, although rarely. It is followed by "of".

For example, He had pains indicative if a heart attack. Here, indicative of is qualifying pains and acting as an adjective.

In the question, D could have been correct if the sentence was " indicative of the fact that the economy, although growing.....". Indicative of, however, cannot introduce "the economy".

Hope this helps!

indicative of will be followed by a gerund.......

"be indicative of something" means to be a clear sign that a particular situation exists or that something is likely to be true:
e.g.
This behaviour is indicative of her whole attitude, I'm afraid.

It cannot be followed by a clause, it should be followed by a noun or another part of speech which replaces the noun.