Industrial production inches up by 2.4%

Showing green shoots of recovery, industrial production inched up 2.4 per cent in January mainly because of perk up in manufacturing output and enhanced power generation.

The factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production had grown by 1 per cent in January, 2012.

For the April-January period of 2012-13 fiscal, the industrial production growth is at 1 per cent, down from 3.4 per cent in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the decline in industrial output for December 2012 has been revised slightly upward to 0.5 per cent from a contraction of 0.6 per cent as per provisional estimates released last month.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, grew by 2.7 per cent in January, as against 1.1 per cent in the same month of 2012.

The growth in the output of the key sector remained low at 0.9 per cent in April-January this fiscal, as against 3.7 per cent growth in the same period in 2011-12.

Power generation has increased by 6.4 per cent in January compared to 3.2 per cent growth in January, 2012.

During the April-January period, electricity generation has gone up by 4.7 per cent, compared to a growth of 8.8 per cent in the same period in the last fiscal.

Overall, 11 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during January, as compared to the same month last year.

The mining output in January this year contracted by 2.9 per cent, compared to a decline in production by 2.1 per cent in the same month in 2012.

For the April-January period, the production in the sector showed a declined of 1.9 per cent, against contraction of 2.5 per cent in the year-ago

period.

Capital goods output was down 1.8 per cent in January, as against a contraction of 2.7 per cent in same month of 2012.

Capital goods output also contracted in the April-January period by 9.3 per cent, as against a dip of 2.9 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

However, the consumer goods output saw a growth of 2.8 per cent in January, compared to a growth in production by 2.5 per cent in same month last year.

In the April-January period of this fiscal, the growth in the segment was 2.7 per cent as compared to 5.4 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

The dip in the output of consumer durables stood at 0.9 per cent in January, as compared to a contraction of 7.5 per cent in the same month of 2012.

The growth in the output of these goods was at 3.2 per cent in April-January period this fiscal, compared to 3.7 per cent in same period in 2011-12.

The consumer non-durables output grew by 5.3 per cent in January, compared to 10.6 per cent in the same month last year.

This segment grew by 2.3 per cent in the 10-month period of this fiscal, as against 6.6 per cent last fiscal.

The intermediate goods production also saw a growth of 2 per cent in January, compared to a decline in output by 2.5 per cent in same month last year.

During the April-January period, this segment recorded a growth of 1.7 per cent, compared to a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the first 10 months of last fiscal.