Industrial growth slips to 0.6%

Showing slump in the economy, the industrial growth has slipped to 0.6 per cent in February this year mainly on account of contraction in power generation and mining output and poor performance of manufacturing sector.

Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production, had grown by 4.3 per cent in February last year.

For the April-February period of 2012-13 fiscal, the industrial production growth is at 0.9 per cent, down from 3.5 per cent in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released on Friday.

Meanwhile, the decline in industrial output for January has been remained almost at a same level of provisional estimates of 2.4 per cent released last month.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew by meagre 2.2 per cent in February, as against 4.1 per cent in the same month of 2012.

The growth in the output of the key sector remained low at one per cent in April-February this fiscal, as against 3.7 per cent growth in the same period of 2011-12.

There was a contraction of 3.2 per cent in power output in February this year compared to a growth of 8 per cent in the same month of 2012.

During the April-February period, electricity generation has gone up by 4 per cent, compared to a growth of 8.7 per cent in the same period of the 2011-12

fiscal.

The mining output in February this year too contracted by 8.1 per cent, compared to a growth in production by 2.3 per cent in the same month of 2012.

For the April-February period, the production in the sector showed a decline of 2.5 per cent, against contraction of 2.1 per cent in the year-ago period.

Overall, 13 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during February.