Industrial production contracts 4.3% in September, steepest in 8 yrs

India’s Index of Industrial production (IIP) contracted 4.3 per cent in September. This is the steepest contraction of IIP since 2011 and mainly due to poor performance in the manufacturing sector, according to official data released on Monday (November 11).

Factory output or industrial output, as measured in terms of IIP, had expanded 4.6 per cent in September 2018. This is the first time that industrial production has contracted during festival seasons.

Industrial output is the closest approximation for measuring economic activity in the country’s business landscape.

A slowdown was witnessed in the manufacturing sector, which declined by 3.9 per cent in September as compared to 4.8 per cent growth a year ago. The power generation sector output dipped 2.6 per cent in September, compared to 8.2 per cent growth in the year-ago period. Mining output too fell by 8.5 per cent in the month under review as against 0.1 per cent growth in the corresponding period last fiscal.

(With inputs from PTI)

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