Industrial growth remains subdued at 2.4% in December on contraction in mining, poor show by manufacturing sector

New Delhi: Industrial output growth remained subdued at 2.4 percent in December 2018 on account of contraction in the mining segment and poor show by the manufacturing sector. Factory output as measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had grown by 7.3 percent in December 2017, according to the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Tuesday. The industrial growth for November 2018 was revised downwards to 0.3 percent from the provisional estimate of 0.5 percent released last month. During April-December 2018-19, industrial output grew at 4.6 percent against 3.7 percent in the same period of the previous fiscal. [caption id="attachment_4317853" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]The manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 percent of the index, recorded a low growth of 2.7 percent in December as against 8.7 percent expansion in the year-ago month. Mining sector production contracted by 1 percent in December as against 1.2 percent growth in December 2017. The growth of the power sector output remained flat at 4.4 percent in December 2018. Capital goods output grew at 5.9 percent, compared to 13.2 percent growth a year ago. Consumer durables output grew by 2.9 percent as against a growth of 2.1 percent in December 2017. Consumer non-durable goods growth was also low at 5.3 percent in December 2018 as compared to 16.8 percent growth in the year-ago month. In terms of industries, 13 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector showed positive growth during December 2018. As per use-based classification, primary goods production declined by 1.2 percent and intermediate goods by 1.5 percent. Infrastructure/ Construction Goods grew at 10.1 percent.