Industrial production grows at 5% in February; mining, manufacturing do better

New Delhi: Industrial production grew at nine-month high of 5 percent in February on improved mining and manufacturing activity coupled with larger offtake of capital goods. The factory output, as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had declined by 2 percent in February 2014. [caption id=“attachment_2151263” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rising figure. Reuters[/caption] In the April-February period of 2014-15, IIP grew 2.8 percent as against contraction of 0.1 percent in same period of previous fiscal, as per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today. Meanwhile, the IIP for January has been revised upwards to 2.77 percent from the provisional estimate of 2.6 percent released last month. Manufacturing output, which constitutes over 75 percent to the index, grew by 5.2 percent in February 2015 compared to a contraction of 3.9 percent in the same month a year ago. For April-February period, the sector saw an output growth of 2.2 percent, compared to a contraction of 0.7 percent in the year-ago period. The output in the mining sector grew by 2.5 percent in February, compared to a growth of 2.3 percent in same month last year. During April-February period, output has grown by1.5 percent compared to a contraction of 0.7 percent year-on-year. The production of capital goods, a barometer of demand, grew by 8.8 percent in February as against a contraction of 17.6 percent in same month of last year. During the April-February period, capital goods output grew by 6 percent as against a dip of 2.6 percent. Fifteen out of the 22 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during the month of February year-on-year. The power generation grew by 5.9 percent in February against 11.5 percent in the same month last year. The overall consumer goods output grew by 5.2 percent in February compared to a dip of 5.2 percent in the same month last year. However, consumer durables output contracted by 3.4 percent compared to a decline in production by 9.8 percent in the same month last year. The consumer non-durable production grew by 10.7 percent in February compared to a contraction of 2 percent in same month last year. During April-February period, electricity production grew by 9.1 percent compared to a growth of 6.2 per cent in the corresponding period last fiscal. Consumer goods output during the 11-month period contracted by 3.7 percent against a dip of 2.9 percent in the corresponding period last fiscal. PTI