Industrial output growth slows to 3.6% in February

Industrial growth slowed to 3.6 per cent in February 2011, compared to 15.1 per cent expansion in the year-ago period, dragged down by poor performance of manufacturing and mining sectors.

However, 15 of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the second month of 2011.

Growth in factory output in February, as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was lower than the 3.95 per cent expansion (revised upward from 3.7 per cent) witnessed in the previous month.

Industrial output growth during the April-February period of 2010-11 stood at 7.8 per cent, vis-a-vis the corresponding period of the previous year. In contrast, industrial output had expanded by 10 per cent year-on-year in April-February 2009-10, official data released on Monday showed.

In February, manufacturing growth plummeted to 3.5 per cent from 16.1 per cent a year ago. The capital goods sector contracted 18.4 per cent in the month under review. The sector had posted a robust growth of 46.7 per cent in February 2010.

However, production in the consumer non-durables segment went up 6.1 per cent during the month under review. It had contracted by 0.8 per cent in the same period a year ago.

Consumer durables segment grew by 23.4 per cent in February, against 29.1 per cent in the same month of last year. Overall consumer goods reported a rise of 11.1 per cent, against 6.3 per cent during the month under review.

Intermediate goods reported a rise of 8.4 per cent during the month, against a growth of 15.9 per cent in February 2010.

Mining growth also plummeted to 0.6 per cent in the month under review from 11 per cent in the comparable month of 2010. Electricity generation output rose by 6.7 per cent in February, compared to 7.3 per cent growth in the same month last year.