Friday, February 11, 2011

Industrial growth plunges to 1.6% in December

NEW DELHI: Industrial growth slowed even further to a dismal 1.6 per cent in December, 2010, from 18 per cent in the same period a year ago due to the poor performance of the manufacturing sector.

In November, 2010, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had expanded by a meagre 2.7 per cent.

Industrial growth during April-December this fiscal stood at 8.6 per cent, unchanged in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year, official data released here on Friday showed.

In December, 2010, manufacturing growth plummeted to 1 per cent from 19.6 per cent a year ago.

Consumer non-durables production declined by 1.1 per cent during the month under review, in sharp contrast to 3 per cent growth in the same period a year ago.

The capital goods sector also contracted by 13.7 per cent in December, 2010. The sector had expanded by 42.9 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Besides manufacturing, mining growth also fell to 3.8 per cent in the month under review from 11.1 per cent in the same period of the previous year. However, electricity generation expanded by 6 per cent in December, 2010, compared to 5.4 per cent in December, 2009.

In terms of industries, 12 out of 17 industry groups achieved positive growth in the last month of 2010.

TOI