Industrial output contracts to 3-month low of 0.6 per cent in Dec

Indicating persistent sluggishness in the economy, industrial output contracted to a three-month low of 0.6 per cent in December due to poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors and decline in production of capital as well as consumer goods.

The industrial output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 2.7 per cent in December 2011.

Industrial production growth stood at 0.7 per cent during April-December period of this financial year, down from 3.7 per cent in the same period of 2011-12, according to official data released on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the decline in industrial output for November 2012 has been revised downwards to 0.84 per cent from a contraction of 0.1 per cent in the month as per the provisional estimates released last month.

The growth in industrial output for October last year has, however, been revised upward to 10.66 per cent from the first revision of 8.3 per cent released last month.

IIP in December slumped to a three-month low mainly due to decline in factory output by 0.7 per cent in September.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index, registered a contraction of 0.7 per cent in December in 2012, against a growth of 2.8 per cent in 2011.

The growth in the output of the key sector remained low at 0.7 per cent in April-December last year against 4 per cent growth in the same period of 2011.

The mining output in December last year contracted by 4 per cent compared to a decline in production by 3.3 per cent in the same month in 2011.

In April-December, the production in the sector declined by 1.9 per cent, against a contraction of 2.6 per cent in the year-ago period.

Capital goods output declined by 0.9 per cent in December, against a contraction of 16 per cent in same month of 2011. Capital goods output also contracted in the April-December period by 10.1 per cent, against a dip of 2.9 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

Consumer goods output also saw a contraction of 4.2 per cent in December against a growth in production by 10.1 per cent. In the April-December period of this fiscal, the growth in the segment was 2.6 per cent compared to 5.7 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

The dip in the output of consumer durables stood at 8.2 per cent in December, compared to a growth of 5.1 per cent in the same month of 2011.

The growth in the output of these goods was at 3.7 per cent in April-December 2012, compared to 5.1 per cent in same period previous fiscal.

The consumer non-durables output dipped by 1.4 per cent in December, against a growth of 13.8 per cent in the same month a year-ago. This segment grew by 1.7 per cent in the nine-month period of this fiscal, against 6.1 per cent in the same period of 2011-12.

The intermediate goods production also contracted by 0.1 per cent in December 2012, compared to a decline in output by 1.5 per cent in same month a year ago.

During the April-December period, this segment recorded a growth of 1.6 per cent, compared to a contraction of 0.7 per cent in the first nine months of last fiscal.