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For a second successive month, industrial output has registered tepid growth, indicative of a slowdown setting in.
The official index of industrial production (IIP) rose 4.1 per cent in August on a year-on-year basis.
Although this is marginally higher than the revised 3.8 per cent growth for the previous month — the earlier July estimate was 3.3 per cent — the fact that it comes on a lower base of 4.5 per cent (against an increase of almost 10 per cent for July 2010) worries.
Among the major IIP segments, the index for manufacturing rose 4.5 per cent in the latest recorded period, while amounting to minus 3.4 per cent for mining and 9.5 per cent for electricity.
During August 2010, the year-on-year growth rates stood at 4.7 per cent for manufacturing, 5.9 per cent for mining and one per cent for electricity.
What is of most concern, though, is the growth rates recorded within manufacturing and more so for capital goods.
This sub-segment — a proxy for investment activity taking place in the economy — has posted an annual increase of just 3.9 per cent in August, following a minus 13.8 per cent in the preceding month and 4.7 per cent for August 2010.
Other manufacturing sub-segments have also returned no-so-good growth rates in August: Basic goods at 5.4 per cent (against 3.8 per cent for the same month of last year), intermediate goods at 1.3 per cent (5.8 per cent), consumer durables at 4.6 per cent (8.1 per cent) and consumer non-durables at 2.9 per cent (1.8 per cent).
The cumulative industrial growth during the first five months of this fiscal worked out to 5.6 per cent (compared with 8.7 per cent for April-August 2010-11), with these at six per cent (9.2 per cent) for manufacturing, 0.2 per cent (7.7 per cent) for mining, and 9.5 per cent (4.1 per cent) for electricity.
For the April-August period, capital goods production stood higher by 7.2 per cent year-on-year (against 18.9 per cent in these five months of 2010-11), with the corresponding growth rates at 4.3 per cent (16.3 per cent) for consumer durables, 5.1 per cent (3.4 per cent) for non-durables, 7.4 per cent (4.9 per cent) for basic goods and one per cent (9.2 per cent) for intermediate goods.
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