The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for the month of November 2019 stands at 128.4, which is 1.8% higher than in the month of November 2018. The cumulative growth for the period April-November 2019 over the corresponding period of the previous year stands at 0.6%.
In India, industrial production measures the output of businesses integrated in the industrial sector of the economy such as manufacturing, mining, and utilities. In India, manufacturing accounts for 77.6% of total output, mining for 14.4% and electricity for 8%.
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Whereas the IIP for Mining and Manufacturing have shown an improvement in growth rates by 1.7% and 2.7% the Electricity sector has shown a decline of nearly 5% when compared to November 2018. The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-November 2019 over the corresponding period of 2018 has been (-) 0.1%, 0.9% and 0.8% respectively.
The top five sectors which have shown highest positive growth in terms of production are fragrances & oil essentials, MS slabs, electric heaters, pipes & tubes of steel and vaccine for veterinary medicines.
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The items that accounted for highest negative growth are bars & rods of alloy and stainless steel, sugar, electricity, printed circuit boards (PCB) and printing machinery. Sugar and PCB production has gone down by 48.5 and 39.7% respectively. Along with these, electricity is another major contributor to the negative growth of IIP, as per reports.
Manufacturing of Wood and products of Wood & Cork have shown a maximum 23.2 percentage of growth in the month of November. On the other hand, manufacture of furniture has shown maximum decline, 13.5% during the same period. India’s industrial production had shrunk for three consecutive months in August, September, and October, reflecting its worst performance in the series that began in April 2012.
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This contraction highlighted the structural slowdown in the economy and hence in this context a rise in the IIP figures in the month of November, even if marginal, could be seen as a temporary relief.
The government, on January 8, in its data release of the First Estimate of GDP has put India’ GDP to grow at 5% for the current FY.