India's industrial production surges 134.4% in April on last year’s low base
11 Jun 2021
Industrial production grew by as much as 134.4 per cent in April 2021, mainly on account of a low base from last year, quick estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) released on Friday showed.
The figures are based on incomplete data as the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic restricted availability of industrial production data from producing factories/ establishments.
Industrial production, based on the Index of Industrial Production, rose 22.4 per cent in March 2021 while it had contracted by as much as 57.3 per cent in April last year as he Wuhan virus hie economic activity across countries.
Industrial production growth, however, was flat in April 2021 compared the IIP for the same month of 2019, which indicates that economic recovery has been impacted by the second wave of the pandemic.
Manufacturing sector output, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, registered a growth of 197.1 per cent as against a de-growth of (-) 66 per cent in the year-ago period.
The numbers are not comparable to the year-ago period as the nationwide lockdown and other measures beginning end-March 2020 led to a majority of the industries remaining closed in April 2020.
Production in the mining sector, which has a weight of over 14 per cent in the overall index, grew 37 per cent in April 2021 compared to a 26.9 per cent contraction in the same month last year.
Electricity generation grew 38.1 per cent in April against a 22.8 per cent decline in the same month last year.
Capital goods production grew over 1,000 per cent in comparison to a (-) 92.7 per cent decline in April last year.
Again due to the low base, Consumer durables output witnessed sharpest expansion of 1,943 per cent in April 2021, against a fall of 95.6 per cent last year.