Industrial production down 0.6% in December

Industrial production in the country based on the index of industrial production (IIP) declined by 0.6 per cent in December 2013, against the 0.1 per cent decline in production registered in the corresponding period of the previous year, mainly due to sluggishness in the manufacturing sector.

The index of industrial production (having base 2004-05=100) stood at 178.3, which was down 0.6 per cent compared to the level in December 2012, quick estimates of the index of industrial production released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed.

This is the third month in a row that industrial production growth rate in the country remained in the negative.

The decline in IIP, which began in October with a contraction of 1.6 per cent, continued in December, as per official data released on Wednesday.

Industrial production during April-December this fiscal has contracted by 0.1 per cent, compared to a growth of 0.7 per cent in the same period of 2012-13. Production had contracted by a similar 0.6 per cent during December 2012 as well.

Meanwhile, the CSO has revised the IIP for November 2013 to (-) 1.3 per cent from the provisional estimate of (-) 2.1 per cent.

Manufacturing sector, which accounts for over 75 per cent of the index, declined by 1.6 per cent in December against a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the year-ago period.

Production indices for the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors declined by 0.4 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively, in December 2013 compared with the corresponding growth rates of December 2012.

Cumulative growth of production in the three sectors during April-December 2013-14 over the corresponding period of 2012-13 stood at (-) 1.8 per cent, (-) 0.6 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively.

Eight out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown negative growth during December 2013 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group 'radio, TV and communication equipment and apparatus' has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 35.7 per cent, followed by a 26.1 per cent decline in 'furniture, manufacturing' and 22.1 per cent fall in the 'office, accounting and computing machinery' group.

On the other hand, the industry group 'wearing apparel, dressing and dyeing of fur' showed a positive growth of 19.7 per cent, followed by 13.5 per cent in 'chemicals and chemical products' and 12.9 per cent in 'electrical machinery and apparatus'.

Basic goods sector grew at 2.4 per cent year-on-year in December 2013 while capital goods sector registered a negative growth of 2.4 per cent in December 2013 over December 2013.

Capital goods production grew (-) 3.0 per cent and production of intermediate goods grew 4.5 per cent.

Production of consumer durables and consumer non-durables registered growth rates of (-) 16.2 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, while overall consumer goods production declined by 5.3 per cent.