July IIP grows marginally at 0.5 percent

Industrial activity, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), grew 0.5 percent in the month of July over the same month of the previous year, government data released Friday showed.

The July industrial growth compared unfavourably with the 3.9 percent recorded in the previous month, the Central Statistics Office data showed.

The cumulative growth for April-July 2014-15 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 3.3 percent.

The drop in July is mainly due to the lower output in consumer goods.

Consumer goods output contracted by 7.4 percent year-on-year, while consumer durables ouput declined by 20.9 percent. Consumer non-durables, however, grew 2.9 percent compared to 0.1 percent month-on-month.

While manufacturing activity contracted 1 percent, as against the growth of 1.8 percent in the previous month, the mining sector recorded 2.1 percent growth versus 4.3 percent.

The cumulative growth during April-July 2014-15 over the corresponding period of 2013-14 has been 2.8 percent in mining, 2.3 percent in manufacturing and 11.4 percent in electricity.