Industry Growth Down To 6.4% In August

On a month to month basis too, this growth was lower than the 8.3 per cent witnessed in July 1996.

Cumulative growth figures indicate similar trends.

The cumulative growth in April-August this year was 8.6 per cent, lower than the 12.6 per cent growth seen in the corresponding period in 1995.

The cumulative growth in April-August (8.3 per cent) also indicated deceleration as against April-July (9.3 per cent).

The deceleration in mining and electricity was largely responsible for this situation.

While mining just managed to match the 9.7 per cent growth seen in August last year, electricity generation improved by only 2.3 per cent compared with 9.3 per cent in August last year.

However, manufacturing continued to make up for the lag in the infrastructure sectors, with growth in August being 7.8 per cent higher than that in the same period last year.

According to the user-based classification, the deceleration was seen primarily in the basic goods sector where the growth in April-August was just 4.4 per cent higher than the 13.1 per cent growth seen in the same period last year.

As against this, the capital and intermediate goods sectors showed an acceleration in growth with April-August accounting for a 15.5 per cent (13.8 per cent in April-August 1995) higher growth for the former and a 9.1 per cent (7.9 per cent in April-August 1995) higher growth for the latter.

The deceleration was more marked in the consumer goods sector with growth in April-August this year being estimated 9.9 per cent higher than the 14.5 per cent growth witnessed in the same period last year.