NEW DELHI: Maintaining high growth for the fourth month in a row, industrial production grew at 7.1 per cent in February, mainly driven by robust performance of the manufacturing sector coupled with higher offtake of capital goods and consumer durables.
Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 1.2 per cent in February 2017, as per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.
The IIP recorded a growth of 8.54 per cent in November, 7.1 per cent in December and 7.4 per cent in January, as per the revised data.
During April-February, IIP growth has slowed to 4.3 per cent from 4.7 per cent in the same period last fiscal.
Manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 77 per cent of the index, grew at 8.7 per cent in February as compared to almost flat growth of 0.7 per cent in the same month a year ago.
Similarly, capital goods output rose by a robust 20 per cent in the month under review as against a contraction of 2.4 per cent earlier.
Consumer durables too grew at 7.9 per cent as against a contraction of 4.6 per cent in February 2017.
Electricity generation also grew by 4.5 per cent compared to 1.2 per cent.
However, mining output declined by 0.3 per cent against a growth 4.6 per cent earlier.
As per use-based classification, the growth rates in February 2018 over February 2017 are 3.7 per cent in primary goods, 3.3 per cent in intermediate goods and 12.6 per cent in infrastructure/construction goods.
The consumer non-durables sector recorded a growth of 7.4 per cent.
In terms of industries, 15 out of the 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during February 2018.
Retail inflation cools
On the other hand, Retail inflation slowed to 4.28 per cent in March, the third consecutive month of decline, mainly on account of easing food prices including vegetables, government data showed today.
The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key data factored in by the RBI to arrive at interest rate, was 4.44 per cent in February.
However, the March 2018 inflation is higher than 3.89 per cent recorded in the same month last year.
As per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), inflation in the vegetables segment cooled to 11.7 per cent in March from 17.57 per cent in the previous month.
The rate of price rise in the protein rich items like eggs, milk and other products too moderated in March as against the previous month.
However, inflation in fruits basket was higher.
Overall, inflation in the food basket was 2.81 per cent, lower than 3.26 per cent in February.
The CSO data further revealed that inflation in the fuel and light segment also came in lower at 5.73 per cent month-on-month basis.