NEW DELHI: India’s Industrial growth slowed to a 20-month low of 0.1 per cent in February, dragged down by a slump in the manufacturing sector, according to the latest data released by the Central Statistics Office on Friday. The previous low industrial output was recorded in June 2017, when factory output contracted 0.3 per cent. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 6.9 per cent in February 2018.
During April-February 2018-19, the industrial output grew at 4 per cent, against 4.3 per cent in the same period of 2017-18. The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the IIP, contracted by 0.3 per cent in February 2019, compared to 8.4 per cent expansion in February 2018. Capital goods output declined by 8.8 per cent during the month under review, against 16.6 per cent a year ago.
Growth in the power sector slowed to 1.2 per cent in February 2019 against a growth of 4.5 per cent the previous year. Mining sector output grew 2 per cent, compared to a contraction of 0.4 per cent earlier. Consumer durables and consumer non-durables recorded growth of 1.2 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively.
In terms of industries, 10 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth in February 2019. The CSO also revised IIP growth for November 2018 downwards to 0.2 per cent from 0.3 per cent released earlier.