India's industrial production rate plunges in December; remains subdued at 2.4 percent

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index, recorded a low growth of 2.7 per cent in December as against 8.7 per cent expansion in the year-ago month.

Image used for representational purposes/ (Photo by Frédéric Soltan/Corbis via Getty Images)

New Delhi: Industrial output growth remained subdued at 2.4 per cent in December 2018 on account of contraction in the mining segment and poor show by the manufacturing sector. Factory output as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 7.3 per cent in December 2017, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday. The industrial growth for November 2018 was revised downwards to 0.3 per cent from the provisional estimate of 0.5 per cent released last month. During April-December 2018-19, industrial output grew at 4.6  per cent against 3.7 per cent in the same period of the previous fiscal. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index, recorded a low growth of 2.7 per cent in December as against 8.7 per cent expansion in the year-ago month. Mining sector production contracted by 1 per cent in December as against 1.2 per cent growth in December 2017. The growth of the power sector output remained flat at 4.4 per cent in December 2018. Capital goods output grew at 5.9 per cent, compared to 13.2 per cent growth a year ago. Consumer durables output grew by 2.9 per cent as against a growth of 2.1 per cent in December 2017. Consumer non-durable goods growth was also low at 5.3 per cent in December 2018 as compared to 16.8 per cent growth in the year-ago month. In terms of industries, 13 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth during December 2018. As per use-based classification, primary goods production declined by 1.2 per cent and intermediate goods by 1.5 per cent. Infrastructure/ Construction Goods grew at 10.1 per cent.