After hitting nine-month high of 4.3% in August 2017, India’s Industrial production growth slowed down to 3.8% in the month of September 2017, as against 5.7% in September 2016. The slowdown was mainly due to subdued performance of the manufacturing sector, coupled with contraction in output of consumer durables. Manufacturing sector, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, slowed to 3.4% in September, from 5.8% in the same month previous year. Electricity generation growth slipped to 3.4% in September compared to 5.1% a year before. However, mining recorded a growth of 7.9% in the month under review as against a contraction of 1.2% a year ago.
As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with base 2011-12 for the month of September 2017, stood at 122.7, 3.8% higher as compared to the level in the month of September 2016. The cumulative growth for the period April-September 2017 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 2.5%. The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of September 2017 stood at 94.6, 125.1 and 150.5 respectively. The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-September 2017 over the corresponding period of 2016 has been 3.9%, 1.9% and 5.7% respectively.
Capital goods production rose to a 7-month high of 7.4%, suggesting some traction in investment activity, while output of consumer non-durables increased 10%, indicating better rural demand. Production of consumer durable goods contracted to 4.8% as against growth of 10.3% last year and 1.6% in the previous month. Intermediate goods and Infrastructure/Construction Goods reported growth of 1.9% and 0.5%, respectively.
In terms of industries, 11 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth during the month of September 2017 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year. The industry group ‘Manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 26.4% followed by 13.2% in ‘Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’ and 13.1% in ‘Manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’. On the other hand, the industry group ‘Other manufacturing’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 27.1% followed by (-) 23.1% in ‘Manufacture of tobacco products’ and (-) 19.2% in ‘Manufacture of electrical equipment’.