India's industrial output surges 134.4% in April on low-base effect

Manufacturing sector output, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, registered a growth of nearly 200 per cent

Industrial production grew by as much as 134.4 per cent in the month of April, mainly on account of a low base from last year, government data released on Friday showed.

The government has held back the release of complete data of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for April, as was done for the same month last year due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), rose 22.4 per cent in March 2021 and had contracted by a massive 57.3 per cent in the April month last year as a coronavirus-induced lockdown froze economic activity. The Centre had on March 25, 2020 enforced a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus.

However, industrial growth was flat in April if we compare the IIP to that in the same month of 2019. This indicates that the nascent economic recovery has been impacted by the second wave of the pandemic.

Manufacturing sector output, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, registered a growth of 197.1 per cent as against a de-growth of (-) 66 per cent in the year-ago period.

The government said that the numbers are not comparable to the year-ago period as the nationwide lockdown and other measures from the end of March 2020, had led to a majority of the establishments not operating in April 2020 and consequently. 

"There were many units which reported ‘Nil’ production, affecting comparison of the indices for the months of April 2020 and April 2021."

Similarly, mining activity, which has a weight of over 14 per cent in the overall index, saw 37 per cent growth compared to a 26.9 per cent contraction in the same month last year.

Electricity generation growth stood at 38.1 per cent in April as against a fall of (-) 22.8 per cent in the last year period.

For the month of April 2021, the quick estimate number of IIP with base 2011-12 rose to 126.6.