Industrial production rises 7.1% in Feb on manufacturing boost
Higher offtake of capital goods and consumer durables behind robust factory output
NEW DELHI: Maintaining high growth for the fourth month in a row, industrial production grew at 7.1% in February, mainly driven by robust performance of the manufacturing sector coupled with higher offtake of capital goods and consumer durables.
Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 1.2% in February 2017, as per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday. The IIP recorded a growth of 8.54% in November, 7.1% in December and 7.4% in January, as per the revised data.
During April-February, IIP growth has slowed to 4.3% from 4.7% in the same period last fiscal. Manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 77% of the index, grew at 8.7% in February as compared to almost flat growth of 0.7% in the same month a year ago.
Similarly, capital goods output rose by a robust 20% in the month under review as against a contraction of 2.4% earlier.
Consumer durables too grew at 7.9% as against a contraction of 4.6% in February 2017. Electricity generation also grew by 4.5% compared to 1.2%.
However, mining output declined by 0.3% against a growth 4.6% earlier.
As per use-based classification, the growth rates in February 2018 over February 2017 are 3.7% in primary goods, 3.3% in intermediate goods and 12.6% in infrastructure/construction goods.
The consumer non-durables sector recorded a growth of 7.4%. In terms of industries, 15 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during February 2018.