Industrial growth slips again in February
11 Apr 2011
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Compared to the year-ago period, the difference was much starker – industrial production had grown 15.1 per cent in February last year. For the April-February period this fiscal, the data released today indicated a significant fall in IIP to 7.8 per cent as compared to 10 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
Meanwhile, the January IIP has been revised to 3.95 per cent as against the provisional figure of 3.7 per cent.
The IIP was largely dragged down by the mining sector. In February, manufacturing growth plummeted to 3.5 per cent from 16.1 per cent a year ago, while mining posted a scanty 0.6 per cent growth for the February 2011 as compared to 11 per cent posted in February 2010.
The electricity sector grew at 6.7 per cent in February against 7.3 per cent last year.
Capital goods saw a major downturn. The growth fell by a substantial minus 18.4 per cent in February this year against versus 46.7 per cent growth in the same month last year. Basic goods grew 5.9 per cent opposed to 8.5 per cent year-on-year.
The only sector bringing in some good news was consumer non-durables, which grew 6.1 per cent as against minus 0.8 per cent. Consumer durables rose 23.4 per cent against 29.1 per cent, and intermediate goods growth came in at 8.4 per cent as compared to 15.9 per cent last year.
Overall however, 15 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the second month of 2011.
Intermediate goods saw a rise of 8.4 per cent during the month as against a growth of 15.9 per cent in February 2010.
India's industrial output has fluctuated since May 2011, when it registered a 12.2 per cent expansion. The growth eased to 7.2 per cent in June, rebounded to 15.1 per cent in July, slid to 4.9 per cent in September and then recovered in October, according to government data.