After hitting a three-month low of 2.2% in the month of October 2017, India’s Industrial production growth, gave a positive surprise, accelerating to 25-month high of 8.4% in November 2017, as compared to 5.1% in November 2016, on the back of robust performance of manufacturing and capital goods sectors. The previous high was recorded at 9.8% in October, 2015. However, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for October 2017 was revised downwards to 2% from the provisional estimates of 2.2%.
As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, IIP with base 2011-12 for the month of November 2017, stood at 125.6, which is 8.4% higher as compared to the level in the month of November 2016. The cumulative growth for the period April-November 2017 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 3.2%.
On the sectoral basis, the Manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63% of the IIP, recorded an impressive growth of 10.2% in November as compared to 4% a year ago. However, the mining sector production growth slowed to 1.1% from 8.1% a year ago. Electricity generation growth too slowed to 3.9% in November from 9.5% in the corresponding month a year ago. The Indices of Industrial Production for the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of November 2017 stood at 107.4, 127.5 and 140.1 respectively. The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-November 2017 over the corresponding period of 2016 has been 3.0%, 3.1% and 5.2% respectively.
Capital goods output, which is a barometer of investment, grew by 9.4% in November as against 5.3% a year ago. Consumer non-durables, which are mainly fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), showed an output growth of 23.1% as against 3.3% in November 2016. However, production growth of consumer durables, mainly white goods like TVs, refrigerators and washing machines, slowed to 2.5% from 6.8%. As per Use-based classification, the growth rates in November 2017 are 3.2% in primary goods, 5.5% in intermediate goods and 13.5% in infrastructure/construction goods.
In terms of industries, 15 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of November 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 39.5% followed by 29.1% in ‘Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’ and 22.6% in ‘Manufacture of other transport equipment’. On the other hand, the industry group ‘Other manufacturing’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 15.9% followed by (-) 13.1% in ‘Manufacture of wearing apparel’ and (-) 11.2% in ‘Manufacture of electrical equipment’.