New delhi: Showing slump in the economy, the industrial growth has slipped to 0.6% in February this year mainly on account of contraction in power generation and mining output and poor performance of manufacturing sector. Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had grown by 4.3% in February last year. For the April-February period of 2012-13 fiscal, the industrial production growth is at 0.9%, down from 3.5% in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released here today. Meanwhile, the decline in industrial output for January has been remained almost at a same level of provisional estimates of 2.4% released last month.
The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75% of the index, grew by meagre 2.2% in February, as against 4.1% in the same month of 2012. The growth in the output of the key sector remained low at one% in April-February this fiscal, as against 3.7% growth in the same period of 2011-12. There was a contraction of 3.2% in power output in February this year compared to a growth of 8% in the same month of 2012. During the April-February period, electricity generation has gone up by 4%, compared to a growth of 8.7% in the same period of the 2011-12 fiscal. The mining output in February this year too contracted by 8.1%, compared to a growth in production by 2.3% in the same month of 2012. For the April-February period, the production in the sector showed a decline of 2.5%, against contraction of 2.1% in the year-ago period. Overall, 13 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during February. Capital goods output grew by 9.5% in February, as against a growth of 10.5% in same month of 2012. Capital goods output contracted in the April-February period by 7.6%, as against a dip of 1.8% in the same period of 2011-12. The consumer goods output saw meagre growth of 0.5% in February, compared to a decline in production by 0.4% in same month last year. In the April-February period of the last fiscal, the growth in the segment was 2.5% as compared to 4.7% in the same period of 2011-12. The dip in the output of consumer durables stood at 2.7% in February, as compared to a contraction of 6.2% in the same month of 2012. The growth in the output of these goods remained flat at 2.7% in April-February period of last fiscal. The consumer non-durables output grew by 2.9% in February, compared to 4.4% in the same month last year. This segment's growth was at 2.3% in the 11-month period of last fiscal, as against 6.4% in the previous fiscal. The intermediate goods production also saw a dip of 0.7% in February, compared to a growth of one% in the same month last year.
During the April-February period, this segment recorded a growth of 1.5%, compared to a contraction of 0.7% in the first 11 months of 2011-12. The basic goods output saw a contraction of 1.8% in February compared to a growth of 7.6% in the same month last year. During April-February period of 2012-13, the production of basic goods grew by 2.3% compared to a growth of 5.9% in the 11 month period of previous fiscal. |
