Feb industrial production shrinks 1.2% yoy

India's industrial production shrank by 1.2% in February, as the global financial turmoil and economic meltdown offset efforts by the Government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to bolster the local economy, data released by the Centre revealed. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for February stood at 272.8, which translates into a contraction of 1.2% as against January's revised growth of 0.4% and a healthy 9.5% expansion in the same month last year, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation said.

Industrial production was expected to come in at (-)1-2%. December's contraction was left unchanged at (-)0.6%. January's figure was revised from a provisional decline of 0.5% while that of December was revised last month, from a preliminary prediction of a 2% slump.

The Indices of industrial production for Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sub-sectors for February stood at 180.6, 292.7, and 212.7 respectively, with the corresponding growth rate of (-) 1.6%, (-) 1.4% and 0.7% compared to 0.4%, 0.3% and 1.8% in January. The growth rate for the three components of IIP stood at 7.9%, 9.6% and 9.8%, respectively.

Industrial output during the first 11 months of the current financial year is at 2.8% versus 8.8% in the corresponding period of last year. The cumulative growth during April-February 2008-09 in the three sub-sectors is 2.4%, 2.8% and 2.4% respectively versus 5.2%, 9.3%, 6.6%, respectively in the year-ago period.

As many as eight out of the 17 industry groups showed a positive growth during February compared to the corresponding month of the previous fiscal year. The industry group ‘Machinery and Equipment’ showed the highest growth of 15.6%, followed by 12.6% in ‘Other Manufacturing Industries’ and 6.3% in ‘Beverages, Tobacco and Related Products’. On the other hand, the industry group ‘Metal Products and Parts’ showed a negative growth of 31.3% followed by 28.1% in ‘Food Products‘ and 16.5% in ‘Wood and Wood Products’.

The sectoral growth rate in Basic Goods, Capital Goods and Intermediate Goods in February stood at (-)0.4%, 10.4% and (-)5.4%, respectively as against 7.3%, 10.7% and 8.5% in February 2008. Consumer Durables and Consumer Non-durables recorded a growth rate of 5.7% and (-)5.5% respectively in February, with the overall growth in Consumer Goods b