NEW DELHI: India's industrial production growth slowed to 4.3 per cent in July, dragged mainly by the manufacturing sector, which fell from 7 per cent in July 2018 to 4.2 per cent this year. According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, industrial output grew at 3.3 per cent in the April-July period this fiscal, down from 5.4 per cent growth in the same period a year ago.
Factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had expanded 6.5 per cent in July 2018. The industrial output growth was recorded at 1.2 per cent in June and 4.6 per cent in May this year.
Capital goods segment, which is a barometer of investment, saw a contraction of 7.1 per cent in July compared to 2.3 per cent rise a year ago.
Mining growth was 4.9 per cent in July as compared to 3.4 per cent in the same month last fiscal. The expansion in the power generation sector stood at 4.8 per cent in July compared to 6.6 per cent a year earlier.
As per use-based classification, the growth rates in July 2019 over July 2018 are 3.5 per cent in primary goods, 13.9 per cent in intermediate goods and 2.1 per cent in infrastructure/construction goods.
Consumer durables and consumer non-durables have recorded growth of (-) 2.7 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively. In terms of industries, 13 of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during July compared to July last year.
The industry group ‘manufacture of food products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 23.4 per cent followed by 17.3 per cent in ‘manufacture of basic metals’ and 15 per cent in ‘manufacture of wearing apparel’. While, the industry group ‘manufacture of paper and its products’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 15.4 per cent followed by (-) 13.3 per cent in ‘manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’ and (-) 10.9 per cent in ‘printing and reproduction of recorded media’.