New Delhi: India’s industrial output shrank by 1.1% in August due to a poor show in the manufacturing, power generation and mining sectors, official government data released on Friday showed.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by 4.8% in August 2018.
The manufacturing sector, which contributes over 77% to the IIP, showed a decline of 1.2% in output during August 2019 as against a growth of 5.2% in the same month of last year.
| Month and Year | Growth (in %) |
| August 2018 | 4.3% |
| September 2018 | 4.5% |
| October 2018 | 8.1% |
| November 2018 | 0.5% |
| December 2018 | 2.4% |
| January 2019 | 1.7% |
| February 2019 | 0.1% |
| March 2019 | (-) 0.1% |
| April 2019 | 3.4% |
| May 2019 | 3.1% |
| June 2019 | 2.0% |
| July 2019 | 4.3% |
| August 2019 | (-) 1.1% |
Source: Statistics Ministry
Electricity generation declined by 0.9% as against an expansion of 7.6% in the year ago month while the growth in the mining sector was flat at 0.1%.
The overall IIP growth during the April-August period was 2.4%, down from 5.3% in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.
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Other crucial data points include:
1) Capital goods output contracted by 21% in August against a contraction of 7.1% in the previous month.
2) Primary goods output grew 1.1% in August compared with 3.5% in July.
3) Infrastructure and construction goods output fell 4.5% compared with a 2.1% rise in July.
“Growth has been driven down sharply by consumer durables and capital goods. Quite clearly, both the drivers of the economy are quite down and need a major push,” Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at CARE Ratings, told The Economic Times.