Index of Industrial Production rises to 9-month high of 5% in February

New Delhi: Raising hopes of investment cycle uptick, industrial growth jumped to nine-month high of 5 percent in February on better performance of manufacturing sector and higher offtake of consumer as well as capital goods.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 75 percent of the index of industrial production, grew by 5.2 percent in February against a contraction of 3.9 percent in the same month a year ago, the data released by Central Statistics Office on Friday showed.

Other sectors which showed marked improvement are capital goods and consumer goods, recording growth rates of 8.8 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.

The factory output had registered a decline of 2 percent in February 2014.

The industrial output growth in February 2015 is the highest since May 2014 when IIP grew by 5.6 percent.

The IIP figures, CII President Sumit Mazumder said, are “much above market expectations, point to the industrial recovery firmly taking root and an impending turnaround in the investment cycle”.

In the April-February period of 2014-15, IIP grew 2.8 percent as against contraction of 0.1 percent in same period of previous fiscal.

Meanwhile, the IIP for January has been revised upwards to 2.77 percent from the provisional estimate of 2.6 percent released last month.

Fifteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of February year-on-year.

Commenting on the IIP data, FICCI Secretary General A Didar Singh said that it is important that to sustain this growth “interest rates are brought down further for stimulating investments and demand”.

He further said that this positive sentiment and growth should continue for the creation of additional jobs.

During April-February period, the manufacturing sector saw an output growth of 2.2 percent, compared to a contraction of 0.7 percent in the year-ago period.

In the April-February period, capital goods output grew by 6 percent as against a dip of 2.6 percent.

However during April-February, the output of overall consumer goods contracted by 3.7 percent compared to a dip of 2.9 percent in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Mining sector output grew by 2.5 percent in February, compared to a growth of 2.3 percent in same month last year. During April-February period, output grew by 1.5 percent compared to a contraction of 0.7 percent year-on-year.

The consumer durables output contracted by 3.4 percent compared to a decline of 9.8 percent in the same month last year. In April-February, the output declined by 13.3 percent compared to a dip of 12.3 percent in the same period last fiscal.

The consumer non-durable production grew by 10.7 percent in February compared to a contraction of 2 percent in same month last year.

The intermediate goods’ production grew by 1.1 percent in February compared to a growth of 4 percent in same year ago.

The basic goods output grew by 5 percent in February compared a growth of 4.5 percent in same month last year.

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Source:Zeenews