The Hindu Business Line : Industrial growth up 7.4 pc in January

INDUSTRIAL growth in the first month of the calendar year 2004 has registered a year-on-year increase of 7.4 per cent led by a 7.5 per cent manufacturing sector growth.

According to the latest IIP data released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), the 7.4 per cent overall growth rate for January was higher than the 6.7 per cent figure recorded for the same month of the previous year.

Moreover, the growth was higher for all the three sectors constituting the general IIP — manufacturing (7.5 per cent versus 7.2 per cent), mining (7.4 per cent versus 2.4 per cent) and electricity (5.9 per cent versus 4.5 per cent).

The cumulative growth for industry as a whole during April 2003-January 2004 worked out to 6.5 per cent. Manufacturing sector in this period grew by 7.1 per cent, mining 4.5 per cent and electricity by 3.7 per cent.

The `use-based' classification of the IIP provides an even more encouraging picture. Production of capital goods — which is a reliable proxy for level of investment activity taking place in the economy — in January, went up by 13.7 per cent. For April 2003-January 2004, the growth rate of capital goods amounted to 10.3 per cent over the corresponding period in the previous year.

The growth rates were uniformly high during January also in the case of basic goods (7.1 per cent), intermediate goods (6.4 per cent) and consumer durables (16.4 per cent), while being marginally lower for consumer non-durables (4.0 per cent).

For April 2003-January 2004, the cumulative growth rates were 4.8 per cent for basic goods, 6.3 per cent for intermediate goods, 9.7 per cent for consumer durables and 6.9 per cent for consumer non-durables.

The CSO figures reveal that as many as 13 of the 17 two-digit industry groups have shown positive growth during January as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

While ``machinery and equipment other than transport equipment'' have shown the highest growth of 19.6 per cent, ``transport equipment and parts'' grew by 15.9 per cent and ``basic chemicals and chemical products (except products of petroleum and coal) by 13.4 per cent during January.

On the other hand, ``jute and other vegetable fibre textiles (except cotton)'' have shown a negative growth of 37.2 per cent followed by a decline of 4.7 per cent in ``leather and leather and fur products'' and 4.1 per cent decline in ``textile products (including wearing apparel)'' during the period.