India's factory output rises marginally by 1.2% in July

Shrugging off the contraction experienced in the previous month, Indian factory output in July rose marginally by 1.2 per cent as compared to the same month of last year, official data showed on Tuesday.

As per the new Index of Industrial Production (IIP), with the revised base year of 2011-12, factory output had declined by (-)0.1 per cent during June due to a drop in manufacturing, from a rise of 2.80 per cent reported for May this year.

The factory output had expanded by 4.5 per cent during July of 2016.

On a year-to-date basis, the output rose by 1.7 per cent during April-July, 2017, which was much lower than the IIP growth rate of 6.5 per cent recorded in the corresponding period of last year.

Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that July's modest turnaround was mostly led by a revival in electricity, which grew at 6.5 per cent over the same month last year, and in "Other manufacturing" that grew at an impressive 20.9 per cent year-on-year.

Manufacturing output, which has the maximum weightage in the overall index, inched up at a marginal 0.1 per cent in July. The mining output during the month in consideration rose 4.8 per cent

Among the six use-based classification groups, the output of primary goods grew by 2.3 per cent, consumer non-durables by 3.4 per cent and infrastructure or construction goods by 3.7 per cent.

In contrast, the output of intermediate goods declined by (-)1.8 per cent, consumer durables by (-)1.3 per cent and capital goods by (-)1 per cent.

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

"The industry group 'Other manufacturing' has shown the highest positive growth of 20.9 per cent, followed by 18.9 per cent in 'Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products'... on the other hand, the industry group 'Manufacture of tobacco products' has shown the highest negative growth of (-)43.4 per cent," it added.

--IANS

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