Negative growth hits one-third of 96 industrial sectors: CII survey

09 February 2009

A third of the manufacturing sub-sectors of the 96 surveyed, reported negative growth in production during April-December 2008 compared to April-December 2007.

Revealing that Indian manufacturing has been severely hit by the economic slowdown, a CII-ASON survey reveals that compared to a year earlier, 22 per cent of the manufacturing sub-sectors reported production growth in excess of 10 per cent during the three quarters of the current year compared to 45 per cent during the corresponding period a year ago.

According to the survey more than 78 per cent of the sectors are experiencing low and negative growth.

Responding to the findings, CCI, director general Chandrajit Banerjee said that further interest rate cuts are warranted especially in the present conditions of declining inflation. He added that the cuts would stimulate demand and halt the slowdown.

The decline is most evident in sectors like casting, synthetic fibre, textile machinery, commercial vehicles, utility vehicles, edible oil and compressors which have reported declining growth.

The most-severely hit sectors listed by the survey are fertilisers, polymers like PS, HDPE, LDPE, steel, pig iron, energy meters, motor starters, polyester filament yarn, polyester staple fibre, textile machinery, distribution transformers, commercial vehicles, utility vehicles, rubber footwear and auto cycle tubes. These have reported negative growth in production.