NEW DELHI: India’s industrial production growth slowed down to 3% in September, a seven-month low, on account of chip shortage, coal mining disruption, and normalisation of base effect, as per data from the National Statistical Office on Friday.
Manufacturing sector’s output surged 2.7% in September, mining output grew 8.6% and power generation 0.9%.
India’s industrial production, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had grown by 1% in September 2020.
Despite the festive season, consumer durables output was 2% lower than a year ago, while consumer non-durables was down 0.5%.
Experts found it a bit disappointing.
“No doubt festival demand is finding reflection in the year-on-year growth but the consumption demand after Covid 1.0 & 2.0 still has not reached to the level that output could reach or surpass the pre-Covid period,” said Sunil Kumar Sinha, principal economist, India Ratings.
Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA, said supply side issues in the auto sector are still a dampener.
“We expect the high base to keep the IIP growth lacklustre at under 2.5%” in October. Meanwhile retail inflation, measured by Consumer Price Index, rose marginally in October to 4.48% due to an uptick in food and fuel prices.