July industrial output grows a meagre 0.1% MoM

Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has grown marginally at 0.1% in July compared to negative 1.8% in the month-ago period. A CNBC-TV18 poll was expecting it at 0.5%. Basically not much growth has happened in April, May, June and July.

Poor show by manufacturing, mining and capital goods sectors, reflecting weak economic activity add to the woes of IIP pressure.

Manufacturing, which constitutes about 76% of industrial production, fell an annual 0.2% from a year earlier.

Industrial output in the April-July period of this fiscal has thus contracted by 0.1%, according to the official data released today. Growth in factory output, as measured by the index of industrial production (IIP), was 3.7% in July last year, and 6.1% in the April-July period in 2011-12.

The manufacturing sector, which constitutes over 75% of the index, witnessed a contraction in output by 0.2% in July, as against growth of 3.1% in the same month last year.

The performance of the manufacturing sector in April-July was poor as output contracted by 0.6%, as against a growth of 6.5% in the four-month period of last year.

The capital goods production also down by 5% in July against a contraction of 13.7% in the same month a year ago. The output of capital goods contracted in April-July period by 16.8%, as against a growth of 8.2% in 2011-12.

Mining output in July dipped by 0.7%, as against a growth of 0.7% in the same month a year ago. The sector's production in April-July quarter declined by 0.9%, compared to a growth of 0.6% in 2011-12.

Consumer goods production was up 0.7% in July as compared to 6.4% growth in the same month last year. During the April-July period of this fiscal, the growth in the segment was 3.3%, compared to 4.9% in the four month period a year ago.

(With inputs from PTI)