Industrial production grows at a slow 1.2% in May

Industrial production in the country expanded at a slow pace of 1.2 per cent in May, although it reversed the declining trend of 0.8 per cent growth in April, raising questions over India becoming the growth engine of the world

Quick estimates of index of industrial production (IIP) released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed cumulative growth for the period April-May 2016 at (-) 0.1 per cent.

Production in the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors for May 2016 showed growth rates of 1.3 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 4.7 per cent, respectively,  while cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-May 2016 stood at 1.2 per cent, (-) 1.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent, respectively.

Fourteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May 2016 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group 'office, accounting and computing machinery' has shown the highest positive growth of 18.8 per cent, followed by 'machinery and equipment' 14.8 per cent and 'medical, precision and optical instruments, watches and clocks' 10.1 per cent.

On the other hand, 'electrical machinery and apparatus' has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 41.1 per cent, followed by `furniture and manufacturing' (-) 8.1 per cent and 'luggage, handbags, saddlery, harness and footwear; tanning and dressing of leather products' (-) 7.6 per cent.

Basic goods production grew 3.9 per cent in May while , (-) 12.4 percent in Capital goods production saw a negative growth of 12.4 per cent and intermediate goods production grew at 3.6 per cent.

Production of consumer durables and consumer non-durables have recorded growth rates of 6.0 per cent and (-) 2.2 per cent, respectively, with the overall growth in consumer goods being 1.1 per cent.