IIP growth revised to 2.3% due to data goof-up

Industrial output growth was revised upwards to 2.3% for April this year from earlier estimate of 2% due to incorrect recording of electricity production

The government has once again goofed up in calculating industrial production. The industrial output growth was revised upwards to 2.3% for April this year from the earlier estimate of 2% due to incorrect recording of electricity production.

"Due to wrong recording of production data for Electricity Sector, the Index of Industrial Production for the Electricity Sector for the month of April 2013 is corrected to 159.1 from 153.8", stated the press release released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Thursday.

According to the official data released yesterday, the industrial output grew at 2% in April.

The general Index for the month of April 2013 was revised upward to 167.8 from 167.3 As a result, the revised index stated 2.3% growth year-on-year. Interestingly, the corrigendum which was released initially stated that the IIP growth is now 2.2% and this was again revised and a new press release stated that the growth was indeed 2.3%.

The revised manufacturing growth - earlier stated 0.7% - was registered at 4.2% for April, which changes the number by large numbers. However, the growth output for mining and manufacturing was retained.

"The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of April 2013 now stand at 121.0, 177.8 and 159.1 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of - 3.0%, 2.8% and 4.2% as compared to April 2012", the press release said.

As per the use-based classification, the growth rates for basic goods in April 2013 over April 2012 was also revised to 2.1% from 1.3%. However, capital goods and intermediate goods remained unchanged at 1% and 2.4%. The consumer durables and consumer non-durables also remained unchanged at their previous figures of -8.3% and 12.3% respectively.

The industrial output which showed a growth of 2% yesterday was seen as a low figure and the economists saw it as a "sluggish growth".