Major rise in sectors showing Q2 negative growth: CII

The number of sectors reporting negative growth in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal has increased significantly over the corresponding period of last year, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said Sunday.

"The CII ASCON survey for July-September 2013 quarter indicates a scenario of subdued growth with green shoots of recovery continuing to be elusive in the near future," CII said in a statement.

"This is despite the fact that the government has introduced various economic reform measures to seize the declining growth," it added.

The CII ASCON Survey tracks the growth of industrial sector on a quarterly basis based on feedback received from sectoral industry associations. The survey categorises the growth range in four broad categories, namely excellent (more than 20 percent), good (10-20 percent), low (0-10 percent), and negative (less than 0 percent).

Out of 91 sectors surveyed, the sectors registering 'low' and 'negative' growth for July-September quarter remain significantly high at 84.61 percent as compared to 76.1 percent last year for the same period.

The proportion of sectors reporting 'negative' growth (less than 0 percent) has risen drastically from 15.5 percent in July-September 2012 to 38.46 percent in July-September 2013, the number of sectors having more than doubled to 35 from 16.

Describing industry as cautious in moving ahead with economic slowdown showing no signs of bottoming out in the near future, CII said "this calls for a concerted effort from policy makers to stay the course on reforms".

"The focus has to be on clearing projects and ensuring that once cleared the investments do take place," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, CII.

The 'high' growth (10-20 percent) sectors have come down to 10.98 percent this year from 29.1 percent in the same quarter of the previous year.

The disaggregated analysis of the survey reveals that most of the high and excellent growth has been registered by select segments of white goods segment driven by sales in rural and tier-4 and tier-5 cities, CII said.

The capital goods industry continues to fall under low-negative growth, where sectors like machine tools, power cables, distribution transformers have fared poorly.

"The sluggish performance of both producer as well as consumer goods indicate subdued demand conditions in the economy which going forward does not sound optimistic for revival of growth in the coming quarters as well," the statement added.