Indian industries slow down to 4.3% growth rate in December

The slowdown in external demand has hurt India's industrial activity.

India's industrial growth, as per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), declined to 4.3 percent in December 2022, data released on February 10 by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, showed.

Industrial growth in December 2021 was 1 percent.

At 4.3 percent, the latest IIP growth figure is well below November's revised number of 7.3 percent.

The data further showed that the manufacturing sector's output grew by 2.6 percent in December 2022.

Electricity sector recorded the highest production in December, with a growth of 10.4 percent, followed by mining at 9.8 percent and manufacturing at 2.6 percent.

As per use-based classification, the indices stand at "144.8 for primary goods, 100 for capital goods, 151.3 for intermediate goods and 166.6 for infrastructure or construction goods" during December, the government data showed.

Further, the indices for consumer durables and consumer non-durables stand at 109.7 and 173.2 respectively for the month, it added.

For April-December 2022, the country's industrial output is up 5.4 percent on a year-on-year basis, down from 15.3 percent in the first eight months of FY22.