India's factory output growth slows in May

A retarded growth in manufacturing output slowed India's overall industrial production expansion to 2.7 percent for May, against 4.1 percent in April, official data showed on Friday.

As per the quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the growth in manufacturing output fell from 5.1 percent in April and 5.9 percent in May 2014 to 2.2 percent in the month under review.

The manufacturing sector, which has the maximum weightage in the IIP, grew by 3.2 percent between April and May. The mining and electricity output expanded by 2.8 percent and 6 percent respectively.

The performance of mining and electricity sectors was subdued in April. The mining sector inched up by 0.6 percent while electricity segment slipped by 0.5 percent in April.

The cumulative growth for the first two months of this fiscal was 3 percent. In April, when the overall industrial output had expanded by 4.1 percent, industry saw it as emerging greenshoots of economic recovery, especially since the expansion was led by manufacturing.

"In terms of industries, 12 out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May 2015 as compared to the corresponding month the previous year," an official statement said.

Going into further classification, the growth in May 2015 was 6.4 percent in basic goods, 1.8 percent in capital goods and 1.2 percent in intermediate goods. But outputs of consumer durables and consumer non-durables declined by 3.9 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.