Industrial production growth slows to 1.7% in December

Industrial production growth rate slowed to 1.7% in December last year on sequential basis mainly due to a contraction in the mining and quarrying sector.

The growth in factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), in the month under review was, however, higher as compared to December, 2013 when it expanded by 0.1%.

The November IIP has been revised upwards to 3.9% from 3.8%.

For the April-December period of 2014-15, IIP is 2.1% as against 0.1% in same period of the last fiscal.

As per government data released today, manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75% to the index, grew by 2.1% in December compared to a dip of 1.1% in the same month a year ago.

For April-December period, the sector saw an output growth of 1.2%, compared to a contraction 0.4% in the year-ago period.

Output in the mining sector contracted by 3.2% in December, compared to a growth of 2.6% in the same month last year.

During the April-December period, the output has grown by 1.7% compared to a contraction of 1.5% year-on-year.

The production of capital goods, a barometer of demand, grew by 4.1% in December as against a contraction of 2.5% in same month of last year.

During the April-December period, capital goods output grew by 4.8% as against a dip of 0.4%.

Thirteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of December 2014 year-on-year.