Industry grew 5.4% in Oct

Even though most multilateral and Indian institutions have raised India's gross domestic product growth forecast to around 7 per cent, industrial growth in October 2003 slipped to 5.4 per cent in October 2003 against 7.0 per cent in October 2002.

The growth in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was also lower than the 6.5 per cent growth reported in September 2003.

Quick estimates of the IIP, released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) today, reveal that sluggish growth in the manufacturing, electricity and mining sectors have pulled down the industrial growth.

The manufacturing sector, which accounts for almost 80 per cent of the IIP, reported 6.2 per cent growth during the month, against 7.3 per cent in October 2002.

The growth is, however, way below the 6.8 per cent reported in September 2003. Production of electricity was up only 1.6 per cent against 7.1 per cent in October 2002, while mining production went up 2.1 per cent in October 2003 against 4.2 per cent in October 2002.

The average growth in industrial production between April-October 2003 was 5.9 per cent compared with 5.6 per cent registered in the first seven months of the previous year.

In the same period, the manufacturing sector grew 6.5 per cent against 5.8 per cent in 2002-03. The mining sector showed a growth of 3.9 per cent in April-October, while growth in electricity output was down to 2.8 per cent from a level of 4.0 per cent last year.

As per the use-based classification, consumer durables grew at a rate of 7.5 per cent against an 8 per cent fall in production in October last fiscal.

Consumer non-durables grew 7.4 per cent in October 2003 against 14.4 per cent in the corresponding month last year. Capital goods showed a growth of 4.6 per cent per cent for October 2003 against 17.5 per cent growth in October 2002.

Basic goods grew by 4.7 per cent for the month and by 4.6 per cent for the period April-October 2003-04. Intermediate goods grew 4.2 per cent for the month opposed to an average of 4.6 per cent for the first seven months of the fiscal year.

Twelve out of the seventeen two-digit industry groups showed positive growth in October 2003 as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.