Industrial output growth slows to 2.7% in May

The annual rate of growth of industrial production in the country slowed to 2.7 per cent in May 2015 from 5.6 per cent a year ago, dragged down by a sharp deceleration in manufacturing output, which offset gains in the mining sector.

Industrial production in the country, based on the general index of industrial production (IIP) increased by 2.7 per cent in May 2015 compared to its level in May 2014, according to official data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.

The CSO also revised the index for April downwards to 3.36 per cent from the earlier estimate of 4.1 per cent.

Cumulative growth in production for the period April-May 2015-16 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 3.0 per cent, quick estimates released by the CSO showed.

Production growth, however, remained positive across mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors, with rates of 2.8 per cent, 2.2 per cent and 6.0 per cent, respectively.

Cumulative growth in production in the three sectors during April-May 2015-16 stood at 1.5 per cent, 3.2 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively.

Twelve out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May 2015 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group 'wearing apparel, dressing and dyeing of fur' has shown the highest positive growth of 15.8 per cent, followed by 'furniture, manufacturing' (11.2 per cent) and 'Coke, refined petroleum products and nuclear fuel' (11.1 per cent) in May this year.

On the other hand, the industry group 'radio, TV and communication equipment and apparatus' has shown the highest negative growth of - 24.3 per cent, followed by 'office, accounting and computing machinery' (- 18.9 per cent) and 'publishing, printing and reproduction of recorded media' (- 9.2 per cent).

Basic goods production increased by 6.4 per cent in May 2015 while production of capital goods and intermediate goods have gone up by 1.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively during the month.

Production of consumer durables and consumer non-durables recorded negative growth rates of (-) 3.9 per cent and (-) 0.1 per cent, respectively, with the overall growth in consumer goods at (-) 1.6 per cent.