India's industrial growth jumps to 8.8% in June

Industrial growth in the country revived moderately to 8.8 per cent in June this year on the back of a smart recovery in the manufacturing sector and better offtake of capital goods.

Growth in factory output, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), stood at 7.4 per cent in June last year, as per government data released in Delhi.

During the first quarter (April-June) this fiscal, IIP growth stood at 6.8 per cent, as against 9.6 per cent in the corresponding three-month period last year.

Output of the manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew by 10 per cent in June, 2011, compared to 7.9 per cent in the same month last year.

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Offtake of capital goods jumped by 37.7 per cent in June 2011, in comparison to a growth of merely 3.7 per cent in the previous year.

Similarly, electricity production also improved, witnessing a growth of 7.9 per cent during the month under review, as compared to a growth of 3.5 per cent in June, 2010.

However, growth in mining sector output declined to a mere 0.6 per cent in June, 2011, from 6.9 per cent in the same month last year.

Non-durable consumer goods (FMCG) production also saw a slowdown in growth to 2.1 per cent in June, compared to 7.5 per cent expansion a year ago, while growth in consumer durables output also fell sharply to just 1 per cent from 21.2 per cent a year ago.

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Meanwhile, the industrial growth number for May this year has been revised upward to 5.9 per cent from the provisional estimate of 5.6 per cent.

As per the latest data, industrial growth during the April-June quarter stood at 6.8 per cent compared to a growth of 9.6 per cent in the first quarter of last fiscal.

The slowdown could be attributed to a weaker performance in April and May 2011, when the IIP growth stood at 5.7 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively.

Manufacturing sector grew by 7.5 per cent in April-June this year as against a growth of 10.3 per cent in the same period of 2010.

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Growth in mining also fell to a mere one per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal from a 8 per cent jump registered in the year-ago period.

Offtake of capital goods grew by 16.9 per cent in April-June this year as against a growth of 17.2 per cent in the year-ago period.

Consumer non-durables witnessed a growth of 4.9 per cent during the period under review as compared to 5.3 per cent in April-June 2010, while consumer durables grew by only 3.3 per cent as against 19.7 per cent.

However, electricity output increased by 8.2 per cent during the first quarter of this fiscal as against a growth of 5.4 per cent in the same period of last year.