Industrial output growth slows to 3.1% in April, says CSO data

Industrial production growth slipped to 3.1 per cent in April due to poor show by manufacturing, mining and power sectors coupled with lower offtake of capital goods and consumer on Monday showed.

The CSO also revised upwards the IIP growth figure for March to 3.75 per cent from provisional estimate of 2.7 per cent released last month.

According to the CSO data, manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index, grew at 2.6 per cent in April compared to 5.5 per cent in same month last year. Similarly, mining sector output grew at 4.2 per cent in the month under review compared to 6.7 year ago. Power generation rose by 5.4 per cent in April, down from 14.4 per cent expansion in April last year.

The output of capital goods, which are the barometer of investment

in the country, contracted by 1.3 per cent in April compared to growth of 8.1 per cent a year ago. Similarly, consumer durables or white goods production declined by 6 per cent in April against 13.8 per cent growth a year ago. As per use-based classification, the growth rates in April 2017 over April 2016 are 3.4 per cent in primary goods, 4.6 per cent in intermediate goods and 5.8

per cent in infrastructure/ construction goods. The consumer nondurables have recorded a growth rate of 8.3 per cent. Consumer goods overall grew at 5.8 per cent. In terms of industries, 14 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth in April 2017 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.