IIP Growth Rises to 9-month High of 4.3 Percent in August

New Delhi: Industrial production grew at a nine-month high of 4.3 percent in August on account of robust performance of mining and power sectors coupled with higher capital goods output while retail inflation came in at 3.28 percent in September, unchanged from August, despite softening of vegetable and cereal prices, government data showed on Thursday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) or retail inflation stood at 4.39 percent in September 2016.

Factory output growth measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) stood at 4 percent in August 2016, as per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The previous high in IIP growth was recorded at 5.7 percent in November 2016.

IIP growth during April-August period of this fiscal stood at 2.2 percent, down from 5.9 percent in same period in 2016-17.

Meanwhile, the July IIP number was revised to 0.94 percent from 1.2 per cent provisional estimates released last month.

The output growth in manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 percent of the index, however decelerated to 3.1 percent in August from 5.5 percent a year ago. The output of the mining and electricity sectors grew at 9.4 per cent and 8.3 per cent as compared to August 2016.

As per use-based classification, the growth rates in August 2017 over August 2016 are 7.1 per cent in primary goods, 5.4 percent in capital goods, (-) 0.2 percent in intermediate goods and 2.5 percent in infrastructure/construction goods.

The consumer durables and consumer non-durables sectors recorded growth of 1.6 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively.

In terms of industries, 10 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during August 2017.

The industry group 'Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products' showed the highest positive growth of 24.9 percent, followed by 16.5 percent in 'pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products and 11.1 percent in 'other transport equipment.

On the other hand, the industry group 'Manufacture of furniture' showed the highest negative growth of (-) 16 percent, followed by (-) 15.1 percent in 'tobacco products' and (-) 11.4 percent in 'Printing and reproduction of recorded media'.