Industrial production growth slipped to a seven-month low of 3.2% in May mainly due sluggish performance of manufacturing and power sectors coupled with poor offtake of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).
Factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was revised down to 4.8% in April from previous estimates of 4.9%, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Thursday.
The IIP had expanded by 2.9% in May last year. The previous low of industrial production growth was 1.8% in October 2017.
During April-May this fiscal, the IIP recorded a growth of 4.4% as compared with to 3.1% in the same earlier year period year ago.
The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63% of the index, grew by just 2.8% in May, marginally up from 2.6% in the corresponding period last year.
Power generation growth decelerated sharply to 4.2% during the month as compared with a high of 8.3% the year earlierago.
The mining sector output recorded an impressive growth of 5.7% in May as against 0.3% in May last year.
The FMCG sector was the worst performer among the user based goods segment with as its output declining declined by 2.6% as against a growth of 9.7% ago.
As per use-based classification, the growth rates in May 2018 over May 2017 are 5.7% in primary goods, 7.6% in capital goods, 0.9% in intermediate goods and 4.9% in infrastructure/construction goods. The consumer durables and have recorded growth of 4.3 per cent in the month under review.
Industry group ‘manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products’ has shown the highest positive growth of 27%, followed by 21.1% in ‘manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers’ and 13.2% in ‘manufacture of furniture’.
On the other hand, the industry group ‘other manufacturing’ has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 31.9% followed by (-) 15.6% in ‘manufacture of tobacco products’ and (-) 12.8% in ‘manufacture of wearing apparel, it said.
In terms of industries, 13 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May 2018 as compared with the corresponding month of the previous year, said an official release.
