Growth of India's factory output slows in December

A decline in manufacturing output slowed the growth of India's factory production in December to 7.1 per cent from a rise of a 8.80 per cent in November and a 2.4 per cent increase during the corresponding period of 2016-17.

As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday, the sequential slowdown in factory output was mainly on account of lower production in the manufacturing sector.

However, on a year-on-year basis, the manufacturing sector expanded by a healthy 8.4 per cent, while the mining sector's output inched-up by 1.2 per cent and the sub-index of electricity generation increased by 4.4 per cent.

"The General Index for December 2017 stands at 130.3, which is 7.1 per cent higher as compared to the level in December 2016," said the CSO report on the "Quick Estimates" of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for December.

"The cumulative growth for April-December 2017 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 3.7 per cent."

Among the six use-based classification groups, the output of primary goods which has the highest weightage of 34.04 grew by 3.7 per cent. The output of intermediate goods which has the second highest weightage rose by 6.2 per cent.

Similarly, consumer non-durables's output edged-higher. It rose by 16.5 per cent and that of consumer durables by 0.9 per cent.

In addition, infrastructure or construction goods' output increased by 6.7 per cent and that of capital goods by 16.4 per cent.

"In terms of industries, 16 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of December 2017 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year," the CSO said.

The industry group 'manufacture of other transport equipment' has shown the highest positive growth of 38.3 per cent followed by 33.6 per cent in 'manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products' and 29.8 per cent in 'manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products'.

On the other hand, the industry group 'manufacture of tobacco products' has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 28.2 per cent followed by (-) 22.3 per cent in 'other manufacturing' and (-) 14.9 per cent in 'manufacture of electrical equipment'.

--IANS

rv/mr