Industrial output growth drops to 20-month low of 0.1% in February

Industrial output growth slowed to a 20-month low of 0.1 percent in February, mainly due to contraction in the manufacturing sector, official data released on Friday.

New Delhi: Industrial output growth slowed to a 20-month low of 0.1 percent in February, mainly due to contraction in the manufacturing sector, official data showed on Friday.

Factory output, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had grown by 6.9 percent in February 2018, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). During April-February 2018-19, industrial output grew at 4 percent as against 4.3 percent in the same period of the previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, IIP growth for November 2018 was revised downwards to 0.2 percent from 0.3 percent released earlier. The previous low in IIP growth was recorded in June 2017, when factory output contracted 0.3 percent.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 percent of the IIP, contracted by 0.3 percent in February as compared to 8.4 percent expansion a year ago. Capital goods output declined by 8.8 percent in the month under review as against 16.6 percent growth in February 2018.

Power sector growth slowed to 1.2 percent in February as compared to 4.5 percent a year ago. Mining sector output grew 2 percent in the month compared to a contraction of 0.4 percent earlier.

As per use-based classification, the growth rates in February 2019 over February 2018 are 1.2 percent in primary goods, (-) 4.9 percent in intermediate goods and 2.4 percent in infrastructure/construction goods.

Consumer durables and consumer non-durables recorded growth of 1.2 percent and 4.3 percent respectively. In terms of industries, 10 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during February 2019 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.