Industrial production grew at a slower pace of 3.8% in September, mainly due to subdued performance of the manufacturing sector, coupled with contraction in output of consumer durables. Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose 5% in September 2016 and 4.5% in August this year, data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed on Friday.
According to the data, IIP grew at a meagre 2.5% in April-September this fiscal compared to 5.8% in the first half of 2016-17.
In September, growth in the manufacturing sector, which accounts for 77.63% of the index, slowed to 3.4%, from 5.8% a year earlier. During April-September, manufacturing grew at 1.9%, down from 6.1% in the same period last fiscal. Consumer durable goods output contracted by 4.8% in September as against a growth of 10.3% in the previous year. During the first half of this fiscal, the output of these goods declined by 1.5% as against a growth of 6.9% last year. Electricity generation growth slipped to 3.4% in September compared to 5.1% a year before. However, mining recorded a growth of 7.9% in the month under review as against a contraction of 1.2% a year ago. According to the use-based classification, growth rates in September 2017 came in at 6.6% for primary goods, 7.4% for capital goods, 1.9% for intermediate goods and 0.5% for infrastructure/construction goods compared to the previous year.
