Industrial Output Growth Slumps to 0.5% in November, Slowest Since 2017

Friday,   11-Jan-2019   05:35 PM (IST)

India's industrial production (IIP) saw a meagre growth of 0.5 percent in November as against 8.1 percent in October, data released by the statistics office showed.Factory output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), is the closest approximation for measuring economic activity in the country's business landscape. IIP grew at 8.4 percent in November 2017.The factory output, determined by Index of Industrial Production (IIP), also fell way short of a forecast of 4.1 per cent in a poll of economists by news agency Reuters.Manufacturing sector output, which accounts for more than three-fourths of the entire index, saw deceleration of -0.4 percent in November from 7.9 percent a month ago.Electricity production fell to 5.1 percent in November from 10.8 percent a month ago.Consumer durables output also fell to -0.9 percent, from 17.6 percent in October while consumer non-durables came in at -0.6 percent in November as compared to 7.9 percent in the previous month.Core sector, which is around 38-40 percent of the IIP, also indicated some signs of weakness. So that came in at around 3.5 percent for the month of November versus 4.7 percent on a year-on-year basis.Nikkei manufacturing PMI continued to be strong, in November it was at 54 versus 53.1 on a monthly basis.Industrial production or factory activity is determined by Index of Industrial Production (IIP).India's industrial output grew at an 11-month high of 8.1 per cent in October last year mainly on the back of mining, power and manufacturing sectors coupled with higher offtake of capital as well as consumer durable goods.The previous high IIP growth rate was recorded in November 2017 at 8.5 percent. The growth for September, 2018 remained at 4.5 percent.During the April-October period, industrial output grew 5.6 per cent as compared to 2.5 percent in the same period of the previous fiscal.