Aug IIP grows slower-than-expected at 0.4% year-on-year

Industrial production growth slowed down to five-month low of 0.4 per cent in August mainly due contraction in manufacturing output and lower offtake of consumer goods, government data showed on Friday.

The factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had also grown at a meagre rate of 0.4 per cent in August, 2013.

IIP for July was also revised downwards to 0.41 per cent from the provisional estimates of 0.5 per cent released in September, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

During the April-August period of 2014-15, IIP grew at 2.8 per cent, as against flat production in the year-ago period.

According to the IIP data, manufacturing - which constitutes over 75 per cent of the index - contracted by 1.4 per cent in August, compared to a 0.2 per cent decline in output in the previous financial year. For April-August, the sector grew at 1.8 per cent, compared to 0.1 per cent contraction in the same period a year ago.

The consumer goods output contracted by 6.9 per cent in August against the 0.9 per cent decline logged a year ago. For April-August, the segment showed contraction of 4.9 per cent, compared to a decline of 1.6 per cent in the same period of FY14.

The consumer durables segment declined by 15 per cent in August, as against a dip of 8.3 per cent a year ago. For April-August, the segment declined by 12.9 per cent as against a fall of 11.2 per cent in the five-month period of the previous fiscal.

Consumer non-durable goods output too declined by 0.9 per cent in August, compared to a 5.4 per cent growth in same month last year. During April-August, the segment grew by 0.9 per cent compared to 6.8 per cent growth in reporting period last fiscal.

Overall, 11 of the 22 industry groups in manufacturing showed positive growth in August.