India factory output grows by 3.6% in October

India’s factory output measured as the Index of Industrial Production registered a healthy growth of 3.6% in October this year following six months of the COVID induced negative growth. This is the second consecutive month when the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has clocked a growth following six months of contraction.

New Delhi: In a strong indicator of economic recovery following six months of the COVID induced negative growth, India’s factory output measured as the Index of Industrial Production registered a healthy growth of 3.6% in October this year.

Of the three important sectors – mining, manufacturing and power generation - only mining registered a decline in October, according to the latest official data released on Friday.

This is the second consecutive month when the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has clocked a growth following six months of contraction.

The IIP has registered a growth of 0.5% in September in comparison with the growth registered during the same month last year.

According to the latest official data released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, out of the three key sectors – mining, manufacturing and electricity generation, only mining registered negative growth while two others expanded.

While electricity generation rose by 11.2%, which was followed by the manufacturing sector which registered a growth of 3.5% but the mining sector contracted marginally by 1.5%.

This is the second straight month when electricity generation has registered a growth as it recorded a growth of 4.8% in September this year.

The manufacturing sector also improved its performance as it registered a growth of 3.5% against the marginal decline of 0.2% in September. However, the mining sector faltered in October after recording a growth of 1.4% in September.

The factory output, according to the end-use of goods, recorded a negative growth only in primary goods as it declined by 3.3% on a month-on-month basis.

While the output of capital goods recorded a growth of 3.3%, production of intermediate goods registered a marginal growth of 0.8% and production of construction and infrastructure-related goods registered a healthy growth of 7.8%.

Consumer durables

Due to festive season demand, the output of consumer durables registered a strong growth of 17.6% in October in comparison with the growth registered during the same month last year, while the growth in the production of consumer non-durables goods has been estimated at 7.5%.