Industrial production picks up 7.1% in Dec

Stellar performance by manufacturing, capital goods sectors boosts growth

Industrial output grew by 7.1 per cent in December, maintaining the recovery momentum on the back of robust performance by manufacturing as well as higher offtake of capital goods and nondurable consumer goods.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown at 2.4 per cent in December 2016, as per the data released on Monday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The IIP growth for November, 2017 was revised upwards to 8.8 per cent from provisional estimates of 8.4 per cent released last month.

The IIP growth in December was mainly on account of uptick in manufacturing sector which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index. It grew by 8.4 per cent during the month as compared to just 0.6 per cent in December 2016.

The capital goods, a barometer of investments, showed a sharp increase in output by 16.4 per cent in December, 2017 as against a decline of 6.2 per cent year ago.

The consumer non-durables, which are mainly fast moving consumer goods, too showed an increase of 16.5 per cent as against contraction of 0.2 per cent. As per use-based classification, the growth rates in December 2017 over December 2016 are 3.7 per cent in primary goods, 6.2 per cent in intermediate goods and 6.7 per cent in infrastructure/construction goods.

The consumer durables have recorded growth of 0.9 per cent in December 2017. In terms of industries, 16 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during December 2017 as compared to the same month year ago.