Industrial output crawls back to growth, inflation slows

Industrial production grew by two per cent in January from 1.6 per cent a year ago amid mute manufacturing growth while the retail inflation slowed to 6.58 per cent in February from 7.59 per cent in January this year.

According to data from the National Statistical Office (NSO), industrial output grew at the fastest pace in six months at 2 per cent, mainly on account of an uptick in mining activity and power generation. The manufacturing sector output grew at a rate of 1.5 per cent in January against 1.3 per cent in the year-ago period.

Industrial production contracted by 1.4 per cent in August, 4.6 in September and 6.6 per cent in October last year. It grew 1.8 per cent in November and 0.1 per cent in December 2019. Last month, provisional data had showed that IIP contracted by 0.3 per cent in December 2019.

Electricity generation rose 3.1 per cent against 0.9 per cent growth in January 2019. The mining sector output posted a growth of 4.4 per cent in January 2020 compared with a rise of 3.8 per cent a year ago.

For core inflation, the February growth stood at 4.1 per cent against 4.8 per cent in January.

Food prices stood at 10.81 per cent in February against 13.63 per cent a month ago.

Similarly, vegetables inflation for February came at lower 31.61 per cent against 50.19 per cent in January and cereals and products rates stood at 5.23 per cent in February against 5.25 per cent in January," it said.